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_free_blocks_sb: bit already cleared for block 228823
>>> Remounting filesystem read-only
[more "bit cleared" errors, and some "bad entry in directory" errors]

>> 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...

> Oh good.

.... and here's the bad news: (AIUI) fsck tries to write everything which it's
changed in one go when it's finished scanning the partition.

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

> I have KNOPPIX v4.1 CD so I hope that's enough. I always have this CD
> and the latest versions for emergencies for like this one!

If it's new enough or your hardware is old enough, it should be fine...

>> 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.

> Do I just run fsck /dev/hda and it let run with defaults?

Yes (well, /dev/hda1), but expect some questions and expect to have to do
some cleanup work (as mentioned elsewhere in this thread) afterwards.

Again, consider making a copy of the unrepaired partition in case something
goes wrong or you need a reference point.

--
| Darren Salt | linux or ds at | nr. Ashington, | Toon
| RISC OS, Linux | youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| + Output less CO2 => avoid massive flooding. TIME IS RUNNING OUT *FAST*.

I'd like to, but I'm observing National Apathy Week.