I have problem with corrupted directory and corrupted files inside this directory on external USB hard drive with EXT3 filesystem.

I fall into problems when I trying to delete directory with huge content, but somehow connection disconnected and deletion process hanged on.

Now this directory contains a big mess - I cant delete remains of this directory content. Also some remain subdirectories changed to files and files have random sizes and types.

All other content of this drive seems OK.

So how I can continue removing this unwanted directory ? Formatting whole drive is not preferred solution. I cant format whole drive every time unexpected disconnection happens.

Is there any proof method to resolve this problem ?

Did you try repairing the filesystem with fsck?

Yes, I've used fsck with next option.

# fsck.ext3 -p /dev/sdc2
/dev/sdc2 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
/dev/sdc2: Inode 16814, i_blocks is 400, should be 392. FIXED.
/dev/sdc2: Special (device/socket/fifo/symlink) file (inode 188160) has immutable
or append-only flag set. IGNORED.
/dev/sdc2: Special (device/socket/fifo) inode 188160 has non-zero size. FIXED.
/dev/sdc2: Special (device/socket/fifo) inode 227169 has non-zero size. FIXED.
/dev/sdc2: Special (device/socket/fifo) inode 227201 has non-zero size. FIXED.
...........
/dev/sdc2: Special (device/socket/fifo) inode 317631 has non-zero size. FIXED.
/dev/sdc2: Inode 335234, i_size is 7740398491874099712, should be 0. FIXED.
/dev/sdc2: Inode 335234, i_blocks is 3, should be 0. FIXED.
/dev/sdc2: Inode 335235 has compression flag set on filesystem without compression support.

/dev/sdc2: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
(i.e., without -a or -p options)

So should I use now "fsck.ext3 -y /dev/sdc2" without worrying loosing other data?

In this case, I do `e2fsck -v -y /dev/sdc2` every time (on my IDE HDDs) but haven't experienced exactly your case on a USB drive, though it should be the same. Also, I use Ext2, not Ext3. To date (2.5 years) this has worked fine, and the odd time I lost a file somewhere, I found it in /lost+found and restored it.

Something to consider ****might**** be the "sync" or "dirsync" options in your fstab file entry for this drive. I have read conflicting reports about whether or not using sync can cause excessive usage on disks; it is definitely not recommended for solid state (flash) disks, but I have used it without trouble for some of my hard-disks. If you expect regular accidental disconnections of this device, it might be worth the risk for you.

NOTE::: Use this advice, all of it, at your own risk. It works for me, but if it doesn't work for you, it isn't my fault

Good luck!

Sasha