I'm getting the following in my system log: Oct 2 12:43:53 tehogee smartd[2509]: Device: /dev/sda, 1 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors Oct 2 12:43:53 tehogee smartd[2509]: Device: /dev/sda, 1 Offline uncorrectable sectors many, many, of them /dev/sda contains my /boot and / mounts /home is mounted on a separate drive How can /dev/sda be "Offline" since this is the machine I'm typing this message on??? Is FSCK the right tool for this? If so, I can't figure out how to run it on /dev/sda since, if I read correctly, the mount has to be unmounted - presumably, I need to do this from a rescue disk? I've searched on this in the past, but was never able to find a good explanation of how it's donw. If someone can give me one, or point to a good document, I would be grateful -- Claude Jones Brunswick, MD, USA