[NTLUG:Discuss] missing ext3 filesystem

[Lance Simmons]

One of my filesystems won't mount.  

  $ mount -t ext3 /dev/hdg1 /hdg1
  mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hdg1,
         missing codepage or other error
	 in some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
         dmesg | tail  or so

dmesg didn't seem to turn up anything interesting.

running fsck.ext3 gives this:

  $ fsck.ext3 /dev/hdg1
  e2fsck 1.39-WIP (31-Dec-2005)
  Couldn't find ext2 superblock, trying backup blocks...
  Superblock has an invalid ext3 journal (inode 8).
  Clear<y>?

Yikes!  Is there a handy howto for how to recover ext3 filesystems with
missing superblocks?  Is this a sign of a hard drive failure?  The
filesystem was working fine for many months until yesterday, and I don't
know of any problems with the hard drive.

-- 
Lance Simmons