is fsck checking file system on bootup necessary
 

Every now and then (well, I guess after 20 boot-ups) the message "Root has been mounted 20 times without checking. Check forced." comes up, and then fsck spends 15 minutes checking the filesystem, very fustrating when you just wanted to check your calender.

Originally I had root formatted as ext2 as I didn't know or care much about filesystems, but I have since turned it into ext3 with tune2fs.

Is it still necessary for this boot-time check with a journaling filesystem, and if not how can I turn it off? Or at least change it so it is done at shutdown.

Go read this - especially the bits in red, then make a decision.

You can turn it off using "tune2fs -c -1 -i 0". There are some superstitious people who will say you should not do that. However, if the O/S detects a dirty journal during a mount operation, it will run fsck.

I have some embedded boards that run ubuntu, and I turn them off by flipping the switch on the power supply, and I have never seen the journal get corrupted.

The same goes for NTFS. I have embedded boards running embedded XP, and I can turn them off without notice, and the journal is fine.

[RANT]You can create scenarios where a journal gets corrupted, but you really have to go out of your way. This is the benefit of using technology that has been around for many years. Don't ever let someone convince you that something is "bad" just because it is "old". The wheel is very old, but I rely on it for just about everything I do.[/RANT]

Good link syg00, had most of what I wanted to here. Don't worry I use a Puppy Linux liveCD for all the root filesystem changes.
A word about my hard drive set up, I have a root partition with ext3 and a /home partition with ReiserFS, as well as another small ext3 partition with a puppy linux frugal install and grub, and an ntfs one from the vestigial XP dual boot (now only used as a music and video storage partition).
I think I will enable enable full journaling and directory indexing. Every time i've had to do a hard reboot the kernel worked this out and ext3 did a recovery, so I think it should be ok to turn off the count/time checking. All of the stuff I really don't want to lose is in /home on a different partition and filesystem, and backed up on usb/at work/at uni anyway.