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On an ext3 filesystem, fsck seems to loop forever, as shown int he following example:

e2fsck -y /dev/md0
e2fsck 1.37 (21-Mar-2005)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inode 8 has illegal block(s). Clear? yes
Illegal block #2371 (3939553560) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2372 (2534662274) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2373 (860109200) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2374 (3289467369) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2375 (3883044785) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2376 (819724782) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2377 (2957378758) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2378 (1131441392) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2379 (1473257247) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2380 (2359314433) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Illegal block #2381 (448867375) in inode 8. CLEARED.
Too many illegal blocks in inode 8.
Clear inode? yes
Restarting e2fsck from the beginning...
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inode 8 has illegal block(s). Clear?

In this case, inode 8 is a journal inode. Removing the journal from the filesystem will allow fsck to run without the infinate loop. After fsck is run, the journal will be re-added to the filesystem.

Begin by removing the journal from the filesystem:

debugfs -w -R "feature ^has_journal,^needs_recovery" filesystem

Rerun fsck on the filesystem:

e2fsck -y filesystem

Add the journal back to the filesystem:

tune2fs -j filesystem