After a panic run fsck -f?

[code777]

I had a panic the other night (my first one ever!) so i decided to do a

/sbin/fsck -fy

command in single user mode. I was told by a Genius this is "ill advised" but when I asked him why he could not answer me, he just answered me with a QUESTION! Ahhh.

Anyway I did it anyway and it seemed to do a "minor repair"

All seems well but is there a reason why it is ill advised to run fsck -f when my hard drive is "journaled"???

 

[rman]

I wish i could explain this, but it has to do with the was a journal file system is defined verse the way a normal file system is defined.

Also fsck works with the how the files are layed out on the disk, where as journal file system lays out the files differently.

 

[code777]

eek, not sure i understand, haha. but my main concern did what I did "damage" anything???

I guess i'm getting conflicting stories. On the 'net it seems like it is advised to do this even if you are journaled.....yet the Genius said otherwise but could not explain anything...

 

[Macman]

the file system check goes pretty deep, if you'd damaged anything, your computer wouldn't have started up. I think this "genius" was ill advised.

 

[rman]

I don't think the genius was ill advised. I think he is just being cautious.

 

[code777]

not to repeat myself but would running /sbin/fsck -fy not be needed after a kernel panic then?

remember this is the same "genius" that told me to erase w/zero my new LaCie before using. I hope this guy isn't giving bad info out!!!

 

[rman]

In the past it was common to zero out a scsi disk, to ensure that all of the bad sectors were mapped out. I am not sure that is needed now, with the newer disk drives.

Please note that when you are using the -fy options on the fsck command. You are doing the following: The f is for force as in do the command any way. The y is used and answering any questions that fsck may ask with a yes. If you were to run the fsck command with out the -f option, it would not run.