[vox-tech] Hosed hard drive?

[Richard Crawford]

On Thursday 11 May 2006 23:23, Alex Mandel wrote:
> Richard Crawford wrote:
> > Running Kubuntu Dapper flight 6 on dual-core PIII.  The hard drive is 120
> > GB.
> >
> > This evening, while working on this computer, it started telling me that
> > my filesystem was read-only.  I rebooted, and the system got as far as
> > checking the root filesystem, whereupon it gives me the following error:
> >
> > /: UNEXEPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY
> >    (i.e., without -a or -p options)
> >
> > When I execute fsck...
> >
> > root at seamus:  fsck
> > fsck 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
> > e2fsck 1.38 (30-Jun-2005)
> > fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to
> > open /dev/mapper/Ubuntu-root
> >
> > The superblock could not be read or does not contain a correct ext2
> > filesystem.  If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
> > filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
> > is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate
> > superblock:
> >     e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
> >
> > So I tried...
> >
> > # e2fsck -b 8193 /dev/hda
> >
> > and got the same message.  I also tried 16384 and 32768 (based on the
> > information from man e2fsck -- I honestly don't know the blocksize on my
> > filesystem).
> >
> > dmesg shows nothing useful.  However, syslog has the following entries
> > from just before the system crashed:
> > May 11 18:12:44 seamus kernel: [4478515.955000] ppdev: user-space
> > parallel port driver
> > May 11 18:13:05 seamus kernel: [4478537.620000] hda: task_in_intr:
> > status=0x49 { DriveReady DataRequest Error }
> > May 11 18:13:05 seamus kernel: [4478537.620000] hda: task_in_intr:
> > error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
> > May 11 18:13:08 seamus kernel: [4478537.620000] ide: failed opcode was:
> > uknown
> >
> >
> > What's really annoying is that the computer has suddenly decided it will
> > no longer boot from the CD-ROM drive, even though I have the BIOS set to
> > boot from CD-ROM, then the hard drive.  Thus, I can't boot from the
> > installation media to attempt a system rescue there.  I've tried booting
> > using recovery mode from GRUB, but I only get the same issues.
> >
> > Any thoughts?  This is a fairly old computer (five years old) so I guess
> > all manner of horrors, including a failed motherboard, are possible.
>
> Got a floppy on that, try a Smart Boot Disk to get the CD to boot.
> http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm

It has a floppy drive, but it won't boot from it, even with the BIOS set to do 
so.  I suspect my IDE controller is FUBAR.  Ah, well.


> I'd also recommend if you have the hardware, put the drive into another
> machine as a 2nd drive and run more in depth tools from a working OS.
> Maybe try to read the S.M.A.R.T status too (if the drive has that).

Well, I'm about to head off to Ireland for three weeks, so I'll have to deal 
with it in June.  :-D


-- 
Richard S. Crawford (http://www.mossroot.com)
"That which does not kill me makes me stranger."
    -Llewellyn, from Ozy & Millie
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