File/Hard Drive errors

[Nils Kassube]

keithclark at k-wbookworm.com wrote:
> I seem to be having an issue that has started showing symptoms in
> Evolution.  Starting this morning, Evolution shows no incoming emails.
> It says it is downloading them via a pop server and no errors show up,
> just no emails either.  I can access that email account with a web
> based email client and I am getting new emails.  They are even marked
> as read, so I'm sure that Evolution is downloading them properly.

Could it be that your disk is full?

> Also, when I tried to reboot, it took forever and the only way to
> actually get it to boot, was to press esc.  I think it might be doing a
> hard drive scan, but I cannot tell.   My monitor just goes blank at
> startup.

You could remove the "splash" option from the kernel line in the grub 
menu.

> I'm not sure where to go from here.  Is the a way to check my hard
> drive from the command line?

Yes, but only if it isn't mounted. I think you should boot with a live CD. 
Then open a terminal and use the command

sudo fdisk -l

to find out the device name of your disk. The relevant entry looks like 
this line

/dev/sda1   *           1        2885    23168321   83  Linux

where it says "83 Linux" at the end of the line. Here the device name 
is /dev/sda1. Then the command to check the disk would be

sudo e2fsck -f -C 0 /dev/sda1

The "-C 0" part isn't necessary, but it displays a progress bar so you 
know it is working.


Nils