input/output errors

[Dan Christensen <jdc@julian.uwo.ca>]

Starting today, the two debian machines I maintain have started
producing error messages like the following:

/etc/cron.daily/standard:
find: /var/spool/news/message.id/046/<nsu0uhpbxajv@forum.mathforum.com>: Input/output error
[dozens more omitted]

% ls /var/spool/news/message.id/046/\<nsu0uhpbxajv@forum.mathforum.com\>
ls: /var/spool/news/message.id/046/<nsu0uhpbxajv@forum.mathforum.com>: Input/output error
% cat /var/spool/news/message.id/046/\<nsu0uhpbxajv@forum.mathforum.com\>
cat: <nsu0uhpbxajv@forum.mathforum.com>: Input/output error

Can anyone explain what could be causing this?  Could my hard drives
be failing?

Thanks for any help,

Dan

-- 
Dan Christensen
jdc@julian.uwo.ca