/dev.hdb1 has reached maximal mount count, check forced .... ?

[db]

Sometimes I get this /dev.hdb1 has reached maximal mount count, check
forced" line in the boot process followed by a fairly long delay before it
goes on and finishes booting up.  (The line before this line has something
to do with fsk.ext2 -a /dev/hdb1)

Can anyone tell me why is it doing this and what exactly is it doing?

(This is a redhat 5.2 machine using a boot floppy.)