Input Outpout Error

[Ben Scott]

On 11/6/07, Cathy Reaves <cathy.reaves at gmail.com> wrote:
> Why wouldn't fsck run?  And isn't that the purpose of fsck - to fix errors
> such as this?

  The purpose of fsck is to detect and repair problems in a
filesystem's logical structure.  It is not aware of, nor will it do
anything to fix, problems at the LVM or block device layer.

  fsck might be useful for trying to recover a filesystem damaged due
to LVM corruption, *after* LVM has been fixed.  But doing so before
the underling storage is fixed will, at best, accomplish nothing.  It
could even make things worse.  If you have a missing volume that could
be brought back online, but you run fsck first, fsck will generally
remove all the references to information that was stored on the
missing volume.

> With I/O errors, there is clearly a problem with the file system.

  No.  Problems with the filesystem will generally result in errors
from the filesystem driver.  "Input/output errors" generally come from
the block device layer.

-- Ben