5.1 File System Management

5.1.4 Causes of file system corruption

Most common causes of file system corruption are due to improper shutdown or startup procedures, hardware failures, or NFS write errors. Shutdown should be done through one of the system shutdown commands; these sync the file system first. Never shut the system down by turning off the power. Taking a mounted file system off-line or physically write-protecting a mounted file system can also corrupt the disk. Improper startup includes not checking a file system for consistencies (fsck) before mounting it and not repairing any inconsistencies discovered by fsck. Hardware failures could be a bad block on disk, a bad disk controller, a power outage, or accidental unplugging of the system. Software errors in the kernel can also cause file system corruption.

Unix System Administration - 8 AUG 1996

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