Just a quick question about ext3:
Are inodes stored in the same area as file data, or are there separate regions on the disk reserved exclusively for meta-data and others reserved exclusively for file/directory-content?
Reason I'm asking: If fsck is clearing/deleting/rewriting something that it thinks is an "inode", could it actually be messing with file content, or would the worst case effect be that a certain file disappears from the directory tree and get's added to a lost-and-found location, like in FAT file systems?
Within a block group, the data blocks come right after the inode table.