Random tip: monitoring progress in fsck
fsck in Linux has had some kind of progress bar for a while now (at least, last time I used SuSE it did). FreeBSD’s fsck is Too Advanced for such things, and if you’re checking a big disk (like /usr) you can find yourself just sitting there with no idea of what progress it’s making.
Sit no more! Just hit Ctrl-t and fsck will reveal its secrets. (This sends the currently running process a SIGINFO.)