EXT3-fs: unable to read superblock

[froggy step polymtl ca]

I got the following error message during the boot process:

EXT3-fs: unable to read superblock
mount:error 22 mounting ext3 flags
Freeing unused kernel memory: 260k freed
Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init = option to kernel

I was using RedHat 7.3 when this problem appeared. My machine is a
ThinkPad R30 Intel Celeron 900 MHz. I used "linux rescue", to get access
to my hard drive data. I changed ext3 tags to ext2 in my /etc/fstab file
but it didn't work. I installed RedHat 8.0 but I was still receiving the
same error message even if I formatted the / partition during the
installation process.

Formatting the / partition with the ext2 filesystem allowed me to get
through the boot process without error. Is there a bug with the ext3
filesystem?