System keeps dropping into shell.

[Mindy Preston]

Ong,

There should be a line that tells you exactly what you need to do when 
fsck fails.  Something like, "automated fsck failed - run manually with 
'fsck -f /dev/sda1'" (with a different device, most probably).  The 
reason your directories are empty is that they aren't being mounted - 
the system is mounting only the root filesystem for repairs.  You can't, 
and shouldn't, run the system in this state.

If fsck'ing devices doesn't work, you may have a filesystem in 
/etc/fstab that shouldn't be there, or has an incorrect device name.  
Have you removed or added any hard disks to the system recently?  Have 
you rearranged any?  These can all cause problems with /etc/fstab.  If 
you suspect this might be the case, you should boot the system with the 
Redhat rescue disk (I know you said you didn't have it, but you could 
download and burn it) or the LiveCD of your choice (Morphix, Knoppix, 
etc.) and edit /etc/fstab so that it reflects reality.

Hope this helps,
Mindy