Quote:
i suppose force-mounting it ext2 is right out?


I'd force an fsck first (fsck -f). If that doesn't show anything try mounting as ext2. Then fall back to killing the ext3 info with...

tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/xyzX

Ext3 is just ext2 with a journal node so any ext2 tools should work fine at that point (if they didn't before).

-Mike
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EmpMenuX - ext3 filesystem - Empeg iTunes integration