Repair ext3 partition on external disk from Ubuntu 10.10

Question

Currently, what is the best way or tool to repair an ext3 partition?

There used to be fsck, but the disk is an external USB, and using the latest Ubuntu 10.10, I wondered if there might be a new tool that helps?

Answer 1

fsck should still work as the cable medium is inconsequential in this case. I'd be skeptical of any other tool that repairs ext3. It might just be a wrapper for fsck anyway.

Answer 2

You can use fsck that works well, go in runlevel 1 :

init 1

Unmount your usb drive :

umount /dev/sda3

Run fsck :

fsck -t ext3 /dev/sda3
fsck -y /dev/sda3

Once fsck finished, remount the file system and go in multiusermode

Answer 3

The "Disk Utility" in Ubuntu is really nice. You can find it in System, Administration, Disk Utility. It basically shows you a dashboard about all your systems disks. Plug in your external usb, select it from Disk Utilities menu and you will see chapter and verse about your disk. A little green blob indicates the disk is healthy, you can see the SMART status, partitioning info and "Check Filesystem" which I am assuming runs the relevant version of fsck per filesystem under the covers. I recommend using that as if there is something wrong with a drive that's usually a good indicator.