file removal problem

[Brian McKee]

On 04/08/06, Alexander Skwar <listen at alexander.skwar.name> wrote:
> R Kimber <rkimber at ntlworld.com>:
>
> > On Fri, 04 Aug 2006 12:36:58 +0200
> > Alexander Skwar <listen at alexander.skwar.name> wrote:
> >
> >> R Kimber <rkimber at ntlworld.com>:
> >>
> >> > After today's update, my machine crashed on reboot and a few
> >> > graphics files are screwed up.  How do I remove them?  I've tried
> >> > from root but I get 'Operation not permitted'. The files are:-
> >> >
> >> > cr-x-wS--- 44040 2262871048 2899800918 37, 234 2061-06-17 08:11
> >> > areas2.png
> >>
> >> Hm. Maybe the immutable flag is set - if it is, deletion is not
> >> permitted. To unset it, use chattr. To see, if it is set, use lsattr.
> >> See the appropriate man pages for more details.
> >
> > Thanks.  When I try chattr I get a message complaining about an attempt
> > to read beyond the end of the disk. Logcheck reports:-
> > Aug  4 11:03:06 infinity kernel: [ 3299.595560] attempt to access
> > beyond end of device
> > Aug  4 11:03:06 infinity kernel: [ 3299.595573]
> > hdc1: rw=0, want=23202205960, limit=40965687
>
> Geez.
>
> I'd agree with what ubuntu at rio.vg wrote: Try to make a backup of
> the data and dump the drive.
>
> Maybe you could also try to "reformat" the partition with a new
> filesystem.
>
> Another check: Do
>
>         dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/null
>
> This will read all of /dev/hdc and dump it in /dev/null. If there
> are hardware problems, the read will fail somewhere.

Nifty idea Alexander - I like it

Just a +1 on the looks like scrambled data.

Backup your data asap before it gets worse.
If you've got good backups already - don't overwrite them with
potential gibberish off this drive!

Keep in mind it's possible it's not the drive itself but a bad cable
or drive controller or similar.   I would put the drive in another pc
if possible and
run a drive testing utility on it and see what it says.   I keep a copy of
"The Ultimate Boot CD" around for cases like this, it has several good
utilities for this.   The drive manufacturer usually has something you can
download from their site that will do a decent job too.
If the drive comes up ok, repeat the test with the drive back in the PC and
see what you get...

HTH
Brian