URGENT. startup stops after file system integrity check (unattached inode?)

[Jonathan Disher]

> Hi,
> I lost access to my Linux partition.  That nothing less than a little
> catastrophy since my office workspace (e-mail and word processing) is
> right there.
> This is what happens:
> The computer begins to start up until
> "Setting hostname localhost.localdomain: [ok]
> Your system seems ta have shut down uncleanly"
> Then comes
> "Checking root filesystem
> /dev/hda15 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
> Unattached inode 130712
>
>
> dev/hda15: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY: RUN fsck MANUALLY,
>        (i.e., without -a or -p options)
>
>                          [FAILED]"
>
> Then I am asked for my password for maintenance.  I also have the option
> to restart by pressing "option-D"
>
> Does anybody know what I need to do to restart this partition?

Basically what it has found is a part of the filesystem that isn't clean,
and that it cannot fix automatically (not because of inability, but based
on the logic written into fsck, to ensure the best possible filesystem
integrity).

What you need to do is enter your root password when prompted, then run
'fsck /dev/hda15'.  It will run a filesystem check, and prompt you to fix
the inconsistencies.  I normally just answer Yes to everything, but it
helps to understand the specific errors.  I'm not sure of a reference to
help explain them (and, having not hosed a filesystem lately, I don't
remember what you will see).  Anyone got a URL to contribute to help?

But, basically, enter your root password, run 'fsck /dev/hda15', and
answer yes to everything.  That should get you back up and running at
least enough to recover your data.

-j