i did something wrong when editing fstab in mandrake when it booted correctly, now it wont boot correctly, and when i try to edit /etc/fstab in vi it gives me an error saying it cant write to the file, and if i try to less or cat it, it says "/etc/fstab: Input/output error." there is a file called /etc/fstab.OLD that has the correct settings, is there a way that will make my computer think that /etc/fstab.OLD is /etc/fstab without editing /etc/fstab in any way? or is there just a way to fix my problem?

Can you remove /etc/fstab?
If you can, just replace /etc/fstab by /etc/fstab.OLD.
If you cannot, post the output of the "rm -v /etc/fstab" command, so we can see what's the problem.

when i try to do anythign wiht fstab, which includes move delete view edit... i get an error like this

/etc/fstab: Input / output error

here is the exact error when i try

rm -f /etc/fstab

rm: unable to stat '/etc/fstab' : Input/Output error.

i am pretty sure the file is corrupt, and i was trying to find something about it on google, and i found this, if it helps, but i still dont have a solution on how to edit /etc/fstab

"The point is that if there is corruption in the filesystem then the
immutable flag may have be switched on accedently.

You notice this on ext2 when an inode has been corrupted. There's a 50%
chance the immutable bit may have been set, leading people to wonder why
they can't delete the file even as root.

I don't know whether reiserfs has such a bit though."

Hi true_atlantis hopefully you're still around, I was wondering if you ever found an answer to your unable to stat i/o problem. I've run into the exact same thing on an ext2 filesystem running busybox linux. Thanks!

What does this show:

have you tried booting into single user mode and fsck'ing / ?