Steve Sorry, started reading the explanation of Journaling and forgot to answer the question: The "f" means to force the file system check. Your HDs are now journaled*, and fixing with fsck presumably wipes out the journaling. Yes, message read (more or less) I was going to force the system check using "-f" Also, apologies if the reply was sent direct on earlier e-mail, just realised "replying" in Panther's mail is replying to the individual. Rod