use of fschk

[Colin Law]

On 14 October 2010 11:48, Joep L. Blom <jlblom at neuroweave.nl> wrote:
> I, have- I hope - a rather simple question.
> My HD (1 year old: ATA SAMSUNG HD502HI).
> Since several weeks I get kernel errors related to this disk like:
> ______________________________________________
> ata1.00: error: { UNC } ...:  51 Time(s)
>     end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector ...:  6 Time(s)
>     sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto
> reallocat ...:  6 Time(s)
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descr ...:  6 time(s)
> _______________________________________________
>
> As this disk is the main disk with / and /home etc I cannot unmount it
> to perform an fsck when running th system. I assume a live-CD  (or
> USB-stick) would do the trick But does anybody if there is an easier
> method as it is such a hassle, and moreover is the best way to do it?

If you open a terminal and type
sudo touch /forcefsck
that will create a file with that name.  Then re-boot and it should
check the disc.

However if you have not already done so I would backup everything
important immediately.

Colin