I've tried the following. fsck on /dev/hda4 and /dev/hdc4 show CLEAN. Then I tried the following:

empeg:/# cd /
empeg:/# fsck /drive0
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /dev/
hda4 is mounted.
/dev/hda4: clean, 4806/228352 files, 2488799/7304850 blocks
empeg:/# fsck /drive1
Parallelizing fsck version 1.19 (13-Jul-2000)
e2fsck 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09
ext2fs_check_if_mount: No such file or directory while determining whether /driv
e1 is mounted.
fsck.ext2: Is a directory while trying to open /drive1

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

empeg:/#

could this have anything to do with anything?

Calvin