*** e2fsck ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block ../e2fsck/e2fsck: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks... ../e2fsck/e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open test.img The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4 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> or e2fsck -b 32768 <device> *** debugfs *** tune2fs ../misc/tune2fs: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open test.img *** mke2fs Creating filesystem with 16384 1k blocks and 4096 inodes Superblock backups stored on blocks: 8193