How to recover corrupted ext2 file

Linux is an Open source OS and it is more secure than windows. It provides the freedom to monitor your system by controlling the look & feel and the applications to be installed, etc. However the Linux system too can get corrupt. These can be due to lot of reasons like virus infections, system shutdown, damaged file systems etc.
Consider a scenario wherein you have a Linux system. You switch on the system, but it fails to boot.

An error message is displayed, that is:

“ext2fs partition type 0x83. .... ext3-fs: inode journal is deleted.... mount: error 22 mounting ext2 error 2 mounting name switchroot: mountfailed:22 umount/initrd/dev failed:2 kernal panic - not syncing”

Cause:
The root of this error message is that the hard disk is crashed after the abrupt system shut down and it is now inaccessible. The reason behind this is that some bad blocks must have formed in the inode  table, which renders the file system unrecoverable.

Resolution:

To resolve this problem, you should use the following methods:
·     Start the system from the recovery boot media and run e2fsck on the damaged file system. This utility is used to check and repair the integrity of the file system.
·     Try to mount the file system if it is on different file system and transfer the data to some other storage media such as external drive, pen drive, etc.

Either of the above method may be able to either rectify the file system or transfer the data to some safe location. However, if you are unable to do so then you should use a Linux recovery software to recover Linux file system. Such read-only tools are able to recover lost file/data .