On Mon, 2020-12-07 at 15:43 +1100, Anthony K wrote: > On 7/12/20 12:20 pm, Robert G. (Doc) Savage via CentOS wrote: > > A client's (truly ancient) file server running CentOS 7 suddenly > > started misbehaving, and I believe the ext4 filesystem on > > /dev/mapper/cl-root may be corrupted. A reboot fails with a file > > system > > check and drops me into maintenance mode. I tried booting from a > > live > > C7 DVD and as root running e2fsck. It complains that the superblock > > could not be read and suggests running "e2fsck -b 8193 <device>". > > That > > also fails. > > > > Is there a way to more forcefully "encourage" e2fsck to do its job > > without totally destroying that filesystem? > > > > --Doc Savage > > Fairview Heights, IL > > _______________________________________________ > > CentOS mailing list > > CentOS at centos.org > > https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > > > I'd say first make sure the hardware is in good order. If you have a > faulty motherboard, CPU, and/or RAM, you might not be able to do > anything and could end up losing precious data if you manage to > forcefully "encourage" it. Anthony, There are no apparent hardware problems, but as I said this machine is ancient. The hardware is a Dell T110 server (https://www.dell.com/downloads/emea/products/t110_spec_sheet.pdf) orig inally purchased circa 2010. It came with Windows Small Business Server, which I replaced with CentOS 7 when it was released in 2014. I also replaced the original Windows-only RAID card in 2014 with a Dell update that supports a 4 x 500GB Linux software RAID5. All other hardware is original, and I hate to think what the hard drive bearings must look like after more than 87,000 power-on hours. I might be able to use a C7 Live DVD with the external eSATA interface to dd the contents of the boot drive to a spare, but that might just copy a damaged LVM that still resists e2fsck. --Doc