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)

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, do a second run of fsck to recheck the file system. If the block was part of the virtual memory buffer cache, fsck will terminate with a fatal I/O error message.

CANNOT READ: BLK block-number (CONTINUE)

A request to read a specified 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 fsck tries to write back one of the blocks on which the read failed it displays this message:

WRITING ZERO'ED BLOCK sector-numbers TO DISK

If the disk is experiencing hardware problems, the problem will persist. Run fsck again to recheck the file system. If the block was part of the virtual memory buffer cache, fsck terminates and displays this error message:

Fatal I/O error

CANNOT WRITE: BLK block-number (CONTINUE)

A request to write a specified block number block-number in the file system failed. The disk may be write-protected. Check the write-protect lock on the drive. If that is not the problem, contact your local service provider or another qualified person. If you continue the file system check, the write operation will be retried. Sectors that could not be written are shown with this message:

THE FOLLOWING SECTORS COULD NOT BE WRITTEN: sector-numbers

where sector-numbers indicates the sectors that could not be written. If the disk has hardware problems, the problem will persist. This error condition prevents a complete check of the file system. Run fsck a second time to recheck this file system. If the block was part of the virtual memory buffer cache, fsck terminates and displays this error message:

Fatal I/O error