inode error, linux won't boot

["Emma Jane Hogbin" <emmajane@xtrinsic.com>]

This is really quite strange. I was moving my office from one room to
another. I hadn't shut down my computer and when I went to do a "sudo
halt" it couldn't find "sudo". It was weird but I was in the middle of
moving so I powered off my computer with the power switch.

Now it won't boot. I'm getting an error about an inode block. I can boot
into my Windows partition, but I can't get any of my kernels to boot (I
always have a few kicking around). They all give an error about a block
not being readable (there's actually a line or two before this as well but
it scrolls before I can read it carefully):
EXT2-fs error (device ide0(3,2): ext2_read_inode: unabled to read inode
block inode=69633, block=278534
Warning unable to open an initial console

then it carries on 20 or so lines until this line:
ISA irqs (default) = 3,4,5,7,9,12 PCI status changes

and then it stops.

I don't have a floppy drive, which means I don't have a recovery floppy.
Of course, like everyone else this happens to, I really need to be able to
keep my data intact (it is on its own partition). My backups are a week
out of date so it's not missing critical, but ... well ... you know how it
goes with data.

thanks so much for any suggestions!

emma


--
Emma Jane Hogbin
Xtrinsic