System will not boot with 'error mounting /dev/root on /sysroot as ext3: Invalid argument' displayed

Issue

• Following a reboot, our RHEL5.9 system will no longer boot. It reports:

mount : error mounting /dev/root on /sysroot as ext3: Invalid argument
setuproot: moving /dev failed: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /proc: No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /sys: No such file or directory
switchroot: mount failed: No such file or directory
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!