manual use of e2fsck to repair dev/hdbx

[John <joney@clara.net>]

Am a newbie thinking things were going quite well, when my psu cut out whilst
booting
(this I do from a floppy). After changing the psu, booting gets only to dev/hdbx
(which
contains the root filesystem), and presents error messages saying 'contains
filesystem
with errors', 'unattached inode 17870', 'unexpected inconsistency - run fsck
manually
(without -a or -p options)', 'the root filesystem is mounted read-only. To
remount it read-
write, do --------'.

At this stage root password is asked for, and a prompt '(none):~# appears.

Remounting read-write using the commands given results in a warning recommending
running e2fsck, and showing the following errors which I do not understand and
cannot 
deal with (Ihave a copy of the e2fsck manual page, but nothing seems relevant):-

a. EXT2-fs (device ide0(3,66); ext2_check_blocks_bitmap: wrong free blocks count
for group 12, stored = 129, counted =124.
b. A similar message except 'in super block, stored =30416, counted =30411'.
c. ------- ext2_check_inodes_bitmap: wrong free inodes count in group 4, stored
=2134,
counted =2133.
d. A similar message to c. except 'count in super block, stored =63478, counted
=63477. 
(I have precised the error messages for compactness). 

Although I had most things configured, I could fairly easily re-install the
system form
scratch. This, however, means I would still have no experience of what to do
should
a similar event occur later when I have important stuff on the system.

I have a second machine which is being used for this posting and with which I've
searched unsuccessfully the newsgroups archives and other sources. Can anyone 
render assistance (suitable for a keen but computer-illiterate newbie) and also
perhaps 
suggest where I can get more info on the use of e2fsck and the filesystems
generally. 
I shall appreciate any help.
John.