Explaining a case of kernel panic in Linux 4 system

While trying to boot your Linux 4 system, you might have seen this on your screen:

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

This error indicates that somehow the beginning of the hard disk has become corrupt. The inode table contains some bad blocks that also include an ext3 journal file’s inode. Although, it is not certain but seems as if the root file system is non-recoverable. If you have a map, you can easily find out other copies of the inode table on the disk. In case the data is present on other file systems, use a disaster recovery boot media or an installation media to boot the system and try to recover data on those file systems by first mounting them and then moving data to another file system or tape.

Data is a valuable asset and if your data is really confidential or critical, you can take help of a reliable data recovery services provider. It is worthwhile to avail good data recovery services, but still they do not guarantee a complete recovery as the disk may have been seriously damaged or crashed.

Another best alternative is to run consistency checks and then try to reformat the drive and reinstall the operating system. Now, after configuring your system, you need to create a bootable CD and backup the entire system on a reliable media. You can now easily use the bootable disc to boot and then restore the system. You should always perform full system backups and that too frequently. This will ensure that you do not lose too much data or if the data is really important, have incremental backups and save them to a different device.

Kernel panic is a serious problem and may occur on any platform that you use.