Is an ext3 filesystem supported for the root filesystem? I am 
running 7.1, 
I have upgraded the boot, and my fstab shows it as ext3, but 
if my server 
goes down it insists on checking it fully... Suggestions?

You have to bring an ext3 on it... Use tune2fs. See the man-pages for more
details....

Just changing the fstab will not work. :) Also be sure, that you have ext3
enabled in your kernel. Check /etc/filesystems and /lib/modules/`uname
-r`/kernel/ext3. And if you use initrd, it must be loaded at startup (something
with mkinitrd preload=ext3 ....). I hope you don't have a default kernel? :)

Best,
 Oliver