Sometimes a server crashes or an error appears on a hard drive, and you can't access your file system. It's a hard fact of IT life, but it doesn't have to be terribly difficult to access data you thought was lost forever. If it is an ext2 or ext3 file system in a Linux environment, there is a way to access it anyway, even if at first sight you can't.

This tip will help you troubleshoot and then access damaged partitions in a Linux environment where the ext3 file system is used, as it is in about 80% of all Linux servers in use today. You'll learn how to benefit from advanced mount options that allow you to access data that you may have considered lost.