On Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 07:58:06PM +0200, frantisek holop wrote:
> hmm, on Fri, Oct 02, 2009 at 10:49:56PM +0200, Otto Moerbeek said that
> > > here's the thing: even though every single diagnostic message
> > > fsck may produce is documented in /usr/share/doc/smm/03.fsck_ffs
> > > i dont see how these questions help at all. what i mean is,
> > > there is nothing to compare the diagnostic data to anyway, so
> > > what is the answer going to be based on? so far i have always
> > > only took the leap of faith and pressed yes or always.. what
> > > else is there to do?
> >
> > make a dump of the partition before going to execute potentially data
> > destroying actions?
>
> yes, this is sound advice of course. but what are you going
> to do with the dump if say, fsck is not able to revive the fs?
> "dump" it back, run fsck again and answer "no" at a couple of
> fsck prompts? how is it going to change anything in the end?
>
You have several options: consult an expert and indeed answer n to
some of the prompts, mount -f the fs and recover your most important
files, use the image as a test case to improve fsck_ffs... there are
probably more cases why having a dump of the inconsistent fs can be good.
-Otto
