I demand that Ant may or may not have written...

> I did something stupid earlier. I accidently ran fsck command on a mounted
> HDD in Debian. I quickly ctrl-c'ed to get out of it. Now, I am having HDD
> problems and I can't seem to recover/undo what I did. I rebooted and my box
> didn't come back (can't check the box since I am at work and doing it via
> SSH).

> dmesg showed this after I before I rebooted it remotely with shutdown -r
> now at: http://pastebin.ca/672751

[sample from that paste follows]

> EXT3-fs error (device hda1): ext3_free_blocks_sb: bit already cleared for block 228823
> Remounting filesystem read-only
> EXT3-fs error (device hda1): ext3_free_blocks_sb: bit already cleared for block 228824
> EXT3-fs error (device hda1): ext3_free_blocks_sb: bit already cleared for block 228825
[ditto for 228827 to 228830, 228832]
> EXT3-fs error (device hda1): ext3_readdir: bad entry in directory #2: rec_len is smaller than minimal - offset=0, inode=2553887680, rec_len=0, name_len=0
> EXT3-fs error (device hda1): ext3_readdir: bad entry in directory #2: rec_len is smaller than minimal - offset=0, inode=2553887680, rec_len=0, name_len=0
> EXT3-fs error (device hda1): ext3_readdir: bad entry in directory #2: rec_len is smaller than minimal - offset=0, inode=2553887680, rec_len=0, name_len=0
> EXT3-fs error (device hda1): ext3_readdir: bad entry in directory #2: rec_len is smaller than minimal - offset=0, inode=2553887680, rec_len=0, name_len=0

Ouch.

It looks like some objects were updated while fsck was running, and fsck has
consequently overwritten newer metadata with older. Your ^C may well have
prevented further damage...

> Then, I decided to reboot and nothing came back (can't SSH back in). I
> think it got stuck somewhere?

When fsck failed, I expect; if so, you should see a root password prompt on
the console.

> If it indeed stuck, how do I fix this after I get home to see the console?

Logging in & re-running fsck should be fine, but you should take that advice
about using a CD and making a copy (consider "belt & braces"). (The Debian
install CD will be fine for this.)

If you do log in and run fsck directly, you should find that the damaged
partition is either mounted read-only or not yet mounted.

--
| Darren Salt | linux or ds at | nr. Ashington, | Toon
| RISC OS, Linux | youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| + Output *more* particulate pollutants. BUFFER AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING.

Nobody's perfect. Therefore, since I'm a nobody, it follows that I'm perfect.