EXT2 directory corrupted

[Peter Canning <canning@vitria.com>]

I've recently encountered some strange file system corruption problems.
Here's the results of running e2fsck

# e2fsck -f -b 40961 /dev/sdb6
e2fsck 1.21-WIP, 14-Jun-2001 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Unconnected directory inode 11 (???)
Connect to /lost+found<y>? yes

Error while trying to find /lost+found: EXT2 directory corrupted
/lost+found not found.  Create<y>? yes

Error creating /lost+found directory (ext2fs_link): EXT2 directory
corrupted

/dev/sdb6: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sdb6: 8907/76912 files (5.5% non-contiguous), 221410/307200 blocks

I can't get past this point. If I mount sdb6 readonly, I can see the
lost+found directory.  In fact, I can't see anything at all wrong when
accessing the mounted (readonly) file system.  Does anyone have some
suggestions for how to fix this, or is this file system toasted?

    thanks,
    Peter Canning