e2fsck on large filesystem fails with Error : Memory Allocation Failed

If you can, add some swap space to the system. The fsck will take an insanely long time, but it will eventually complete. Next time, chop your filesystem into smaller pieces.


  1. Did you add those flags to the [scratch_files] section? Also, try to use "numdirs_threshold " to control when it starts to use the scratch files.
  2. Sometimes the e2fs utils are too old on the installed system (Like Centos4). You could boot a rescue image with the newer version of kernel and filesystem utils. Setup e2fsck.conf and let e2fsck use it.

HTH.