Magic numbers and superblocks

From: Simon Dodd (simon_at_copperstream.co.uk)
Date: 12/29/03 

Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 14:46:22 -0000

Hi there,
I'm getting the error "bad magic number in super block while loading
/dev/hda2" when booting into a Red Hat 8 system. The box has three
partitions on one physical drive.

Once you get into a shell, you can mount and unmount any partion other that
/hda2, but /hda2 cannot be mounted. Nor can I run fsck, e2fsck or anything
else that checks or otherwise talks to that partition. Repeated attempts to
RTFM or Goooooooogle the problem have brought me substantially closer to
neither an intimate understanding of the problem (were it not for the fact
that other partitions on the same disk were working, I'd have to conclude
the disk was buggered), nor a possible fix.

Could anyone shed some light on the nature of the problem and whether it is
recoverable?

Regards,
Simon

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