It's a bit misleading because the numbers above are in hex. 0x41=65,
so it's
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 65 Jul 17 1994 /dev/hdb1
Various people have seen errors like this pop up when the fs claims no
actual errors. Most are running busy systems like news servers. Nobody
seems to know what really causes it. It could perhaps be a disk read
error or corrupted read that the kernel isn't detecting or dealing with
properly.
I believe that most of these cases (where the kernel reports ext2
problems, but rebooting fixings it and e2fsck doesn't detect any errors)
are caused by hardware problems --- most likely bits getting flipped as
they get transfered to memory, although possibly they could be a rare
memory problem. I'd take a very careful look at the controllers and the
disk cabling.
Keep in mind that most PC's are not manufactured to the same high levels
of quality control as typical minicomputers that might run Unix.
There's a reason why Novell started their certification program for
their Novell Netware servers..... and why buying a Netware certified
server is a lot more expensive than your latest "slap-it-together from
random parts made in Taiwan" computer that you can find in Sears or
Computer Discount Warehouse.
- Ted