General fsck Error Messages

The error messages in this section may be displayed in any phase after initialization. Although they offer the option to continue, it is generally best to regard them as fatal. They reflect a serious system failure and should be handled immediately. When confronted with such a message, terminate the program by entering n(o). If you cannot determine what caused the problem, contact your local service provider or another qualified person.

CANNOT SEEK: BLK block-number (CONTINUE)

Cause

A request to move to a specified block number, block-number, in the file system failed. This message indicates a serious problem, probably a hardware failure.

If you want to continue the file system check, fsck will retry the move and display a list of sector numbers that could not be moved. If the block was part of the virtual memory buffer cache, fsck will terminate with a fatal I/O error message.

Action

If the disk is experiencing hardware problems, the problem will persist. Run fsck again to recheck the file system.

If the recheck fails, contact your local service provider or another qualified person.

CANNOT READ: BLK block-number (CONTINUE)

Cause

A request to read a specified block number, block-number, in the file system failed. The message indicates a serious problem, probably a hardware failure.

If you want to continue the file system check, fsck will retry the read and display a list of sector numbers that could not be read. If the block was part of the virtual memory buffer cache, fsck will terminate with a fatal I/O error message. If fsck tries to write back one of the blocks on which the read failed, it will display the following message:

WRITING ZERO'ED BLOCK sector-numbers TO DISK

Action

If the disk is experiencing hardware problems, the problem will persist. Run fsck again to recheck the file system. If the recheck fails, contact your local service provider or another qualified person.

CANNOT WRITE: BLK block-number (CONTINUE)

Cause

A request to write a specified block number, block-number, in the file system failed.

If you continue the file system check, fsck will retry the write and display a list of sector numbers that could not be written. If the block was part of the virtual memory buffer cache, fsck will terminate with a fatal I/O error message.

Action

The disk may be write-protected. Check the write-protect lock on the drive. If the disk has hardware problems, the problem will persist. Run fsck again to recheck the file system. If the write-protect is not the problem or the recheck fails, contact your local service provider or another qualified person.