[conspire] fsck "differences between boot sector and its backup"

[Rick Moen]

Quoting roger at rogerchrisman.com (roger at rogerchrisman.com):
 
> I have now defraged my sda1's FAT file system (Windows partition)
> using Windows' own defragment tool.
> 
> I have also copied sda1's "original" boot sector to its "backup" boot
> sector using Kubuntu's fsck, like this:
> 
> sudo umount /dev/sda1
> sudo fsck -r /dev/sda1
> 
> By the way, fsck would not do the repair without the -r flag.

Well, yes and no:  Running dosfsck with "-r" forces it into interactive
(response) mode, in which it describes and then asks you whether to
correct each error it finds.  You could alternatively use "-a"
(automatic mode), in which dosfsck doesn't bother stopping to ask your
permission for each error fix, but instead just goes ahead and does
them.  The default action, absent either of those options, is to be
conservative by detailing all errors found but taking no action.

(Incidentally, I had no idea about the above until a moment ago, as I've
never had cause to use dosfsck.  I spent 20 seconds browsing the
manpage.  ;->  )

> Now that the repair is done, fsck finds no trouble in sda1. However,
> fsck still spends 28 seconds examining sda1 during Kubuntu boot up. 

Kubuntu appears to default to checking, during each startup, all
file-bearing filesystems declared in /etc/fstab.

> Say, why am I always mounting sda1 at Kubuntu startup? Hm.. I have had
> Kubuntu mount that Windows partition automatically as "/media/10G\
> Media" so I can get at files on it, which I never do come to think of
> it, without needing to remember how to mount it.
> 
> So now.. /etc/fstab I comment out the sda1 line in /etc/fstab and
> reboot.. Good, now Kubuntu does not mount sda1 at startup anymore (and
> understandably fsck no longer examines sda1).
[...]
> Is /etc/fstab the correct place to control what mounts at startup?

Yes.  That's exactly what it is, and what it's for. 

> *Weird*: Kubuntu boots in now 1 minute to KDE login screen when I
> display its progress via Alt+F1 but in 3 minutes (2 whole minutes
> more) to same KDE login screen when I do not display its progress.

I cannot say why, offhand.