[cobalt-users] More wierd disk errors on Raq 3 - fsck apparently won't fix

[Chip <chip@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, folks.

I've been fighting with my Raq 3 (a non-production server) for several 
weeks now.  The problem was unrecoverable disk errors.  All of this 
apparently occurred during an involuntary power interruption to the Raq.

I've finally gotten the thing to boot up, but it doesn't *consistently* 
boot. I've got a console hooked up through the serial port on the back of 
the Raq so I can see what's happening.

The scenario seems to be that it will boot properly one out of every two 
times. The first time, it will give a message about unrecoverable errors, 
dump me to the shell, after which I unmount /dev/hda4 and run fsck.  It 
comes up with hundreds of errors (I jammed a screwdriver to the "Y" key to 
ignore the errors -- the only option apparently offered)  that look like 
the following:

hda: read_intr: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
hda: read_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=16594750, 
sector=14385214
EXT2-fs error (device ide0(3,4)): read_inode_bitmap: Cannot read inode bitmap -
block_group = 878, inode_bitmap = 7192607
hda: read_intr: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
hda: read_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=16611134, 
sector=14401598

After allowing it to report and ignore these hundreds of errors, if I then 
reboot, it will give a bunch of error messages (similar to the above), 
report that /dev/hda4 is clean, and continue to boot, apparently operating 
normally.

If I then reboot the server from the control panel, the whole process 
starts again -- boot fails, dumps me into shell, I run fsck, it reports 
thousands of errors, etc....

I am running out of of options.  I dug up some documentation on fsck, but 
the only thing I found was that the -a option (automatic fix), which 
doesn't work -- it tells me to run it manually.

If anyone has any ideas before I call Cobalt for a replacement drive (it's 
still under warranty) please let me know.

Thanks very much!!

Chip White