Linux Community Magazine

Ext3 (or extended file system) is used as the default file system for many of the Linux distributions. Since it is a journaled file system, it removes the need of running file system check after you encounter unexpected system shutdown. It also supports online file system growth and HTree indexing for large-sized directories. But irrespective of different security features it involves, the file system is prone to corruption. Its metadata structures might get corrupted due to several external and internal reasons. To solve such inconsistencies, Linux runs a boot-time fsck to detect and repair file system errors, if any. However, if it cannot resolve specific file system issues, you will need to run fsck manually or else use Linux Data Recovery applications to extract the lost data. As an instance, when you try to boot-up a Linux-based system with hard disk formatted to Ext3 file system, you might receive the similar error message:"fsck.ext3 Unable to resolve 'LABEL=boot"You encounter such errors after all hardware have been initialized and boot-time fsck is launched. CauseThe above error is likely to occur in any of the following conditions:Wrong entry of boot partition in /etc/fstab fileBoot partition is corruptedHard disk contains bad sectorsSolution You should apply these methods to troubleshoot such problems:Make sure that you have marked the correct entry of boot partition. To do so, you can boot into the system through installation disk and access the Rescue Mode.If boot partition corruption is the issue, boot the system using Linux installation disk and run fsck on /boot partition in Rescue Mode. Make sure that it is not mounted. Replace the hard disk if bad sectors are physical or first reformat it as bad sector might be logical too. After reformatting, restore data from backup.If fsck is unable to fix file system corruption and data is still inaccessible or you don't have valid data backup after reformatting the disk, it is recommende d to use Linux Recovery tools for data recovery purposes. Such Linux Data Recovery applications are competent to scan a logically crashed drive and restore original data safely.Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is a comprehensive data recovery tool for Linux-based system that provides safe Linux Recovery for Ext2, Ext3, and ReiserFS file systems. The application empowers you with advanced features such as, Ext3 Recovery, File Filter, Append File Header etc. It is compatible with almost all Linux distributions including Gentoo, SlackWare, Mandrake, Ubuntu, SUSE etc.