[Ubuntu-users] fsck shows errors on main partition only when mounted

[Colin Law]

On 16 November 2010 15:10, K. Frank <kfrank29.c at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello All -
>
> I have just installed ubuntu on a former windows machine whose
> os had become corrupted, and fsck reports disk errors.
>
> Should I care, and how can I fix this?
>
> I run:
>
>   sudo fsck -n /dev/sda1
>
> on my main partition, and it reports errors, ending with:
>
>   WARNING: Filesystem still has errors
>
> (Errors reported include "corrupted orphan linked listed found."
> and "Free blocks count wrong" among others.")
>
> The partition is mounted, as it's my main partition with ubuntu
> (and fsck) on it.

I don't think it is valid to run fsck on a mounted drive.

Colin

>
> With a mind to fix the errors, I boot off of an ubuntu-installation
> flash drive, and run ubuntu from there without mounting my
> hard drive.  Now running fsck from the flash drive shows no
> errors.
>
> Then, running off the flash drive, I deleted the partitions on
> the hard drive, repartitioned, and reformatted (as ext4), and
> reinstalled ubuntu.
>
> But I see the same problem -- no errors when running fsck
> from the flash drive with the hard drive not mounted, but
> errors when running from the hard drive with the hard drive
> mounted.
>
> The errors reported by fsck before and after the reinstall
> are broadly similar.  They might even be identical, but,
> from memory, I can't tell.
>
> It is possible that the hard drive has real errors -- after all,
> os corruption prompted me to install ubuntu.  However, it
> is not on its last legs -- ubuntu appears to have installed
> correctly, and appears to run correctly, and I don't see any
> obvious disk errors, other than those reported by fsck.
>
> Again, are these real errors, and if so, how might I fix them?
> (And, if not, for my education, what is going on here.)
>
> Thanks for any advice.
>
>
> K. Frank
>
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