Bizarre problem - root FS keeps on corrupting

[UK31337]

Hi, I'm a first-time poster with a serious problem.

I've been trying to run Linux on my laptop (Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M3438G) Its specs are:

2.0Ghz Pentium M
1GB RAM
GeForce Go 6800 256Mb
2x SATA 60Gb HDDs in software RAID.

I've got the RAID disabled in my Windows VIA RAID tool - the system just considers them as 2 separate drives, there's no striping or mirroring going on.

Now, my problem is this. I've got a dualboot system, Windows is installed on what Linux sees as /dev/sda/, and the Linux drive (whole separate drive, not a partition) is /dev/sdb/. GRUB is installed on my MBR on /dev/sda/, I think the boot partition is there too. AFAIK they're both masters. I've so far tried two Linux distributions - Ubuntu Breezy, and the latest version of SimplyMEPIS. Both worked fine, until...

A few days after installing and working absolutely fine, I switched on one day, and I was basically told that the root FS was either corrupt or couldn't be found. I reinstalled Ubuntu about 4 times, the same thing kept on happening. I gave up, and got SimplyMEPIS.

SimplyMEPIS lasted slightly longer before I got a similar error again on boot. Windows XP Home was still booting fine, and still is.

In both cases, I got an error on boot something along the lines of:

EXT-2 FS: Root descriptors corrupted! or something like that

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown block(8,17)

The drive was formatted Ext-3, so why EXT-2 appears is beyond me.

When I booted SimplyMEPIS off the CD (it runs as a Live, you hit a desktop icon to install it), and tried to mount and view the contents of /dev/sdb/ (my Linux drive), I got this error:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1

missing codepage or other error

So it seems that the whole drive Linux is on is corrupted. GRUB finds it fine, it's just the data seems to be corrupted and Linux won't boot.

So far, they've both been Debian distros, is this perhaps part of the problem? I don't want to waste time downloading 5 CD's worth of Fedora or something else if it's going to come to the same sticky end as Ubuntu and Mepis did.

This seems like a really bizarre problem, there just seems no reason for it. Other laptop users don't seem to be having any problems.

Can anybody think of the reason why I should experience such problems, and how to fix them?

Thanks in advance, I'd like my Linux to work perfectly as long as I have it, not to have to reinstall every 4 days or so.

Thanks for your help,

UK31337.

P.S. - I'll be sticking around here, don't think I'm a one post wonder. I'm into Linux, so I'll be posting more often.

[farslayer]

are you not shutting down the system properly when you are done working on it ?

[farslayer]

are you not shutting down the system properly when you are done working on it ?

I've been running Debian on my laptop for a couple years in a dual boot config with Windows XP and I've not had any issues..

[lestoil]

Did you have to do something in BIOS settings too so that HDs are seen separately in linux too? What do you mean both HDs are masters? Can you check the HD jumper settings and check the ribbon connections? If both masters then you can pick from BIOS which to boot without lilo or grub? Boot manager is in mbr of 1st HD.
If you have Boot partition when did you make it? and how without affecting OS on 1st disk?