file corrupt: system partially freezes (reiserfs)

["Alan E. Davis" <aedavis@eccomm.com>]

Strangely, a file that I was editing (text file, LaTeX source, edited
w/ emacs) became corrupt: all I could see was a long string of "@@@@"
ad nauseum (as I remember, foggily).  If I tried to do anything with
the file, even copy it, the x cursor was worthless, and the keyboard at
times lost all connection to any encoding.  Eventually, I was able to
start root, and work on it, but if I tried to log in as my user login,
the system was either useless or extremely capricious.  

I rebooted a couple of times, and each time, the file, when accessed at
all, led to corruption of the system for that user, at least.  Rebooted
once into singleuser mode, and ran reiserfsck --rebuild-tree, and even
then, accessing that file would trash the system.  Reiserfsck saw this
file had some problems, along with another one.  I am sorry I cannot
provide more meaningful details.

Eventually I am able to find a backup file of that file, and it runs. 
But to access that file I am afraid.

There was a loud sound, like perhaps a disk drive bearing noise, when
rebooting, a couple of times.  I think I will accept that the drive may
be going down.

Can anyone make any sense out of the sparse details I can provide?  

Thanks in advance,

Alan Davis
Kagman High School
Saipan
aedavis@eccomm.com

-- 
    A non-free program systematically denies the users the freedom to
    cooperate; it is the basis of an antisocial scheme to dominate
    people.     --Richard M. Stallman