Originally Posted by mattsandersuk 
thanks, i will try running memtest in a mo, i tried to format the disc using the windows xp install disc but that will only get to a certain stage and then stops, after it inspects the hardware it freezes.
I'm guessing that the windows installer doesnt like the linux part of the disk, you should be able to get a low level format utility (i believe maxtor do one... part of the powermax thing -
Here
). Which should get rid of everything so you can start again
HTH!