Corrupt /share - all files missing and can't lstat - help

[easelpad1]

Discovered today that my /share directory is missing or corrupt. All fields (permissions, ownership, inode, etc) read '?'.

Will a fsck from single user mode fix this? Tried rebooting several times, etc. All other system functions see to be ok, except all the files in /usr/share are missing, the directory 'share' blinks red and obviously dovecot will not run - which is keeping our IMAP from running.

Version is Fedora Core 3 (yes this system is still running FC 3 and for a reason). Thanks for any help.

[Rubberman]

What file system is /share using? My suggestion is:

1. Backup entire disc image to file on external drive.
2. Boot with rescue CD or single-user mode and make sure the file system /share is on is unmounted.
3. Run fsck with the bad_blocks option - it's possible that some critical sectors on the disc are bad and that the drive itself is failing.
4. Mount file system and see what you have (or not).

If this is an ext2/ext3 file system, then there are tools that can help recover lost files, such as e2undel and ext3undel.