first allocation unit invalid !!!!???

[entranced]

my laptop keeps hanging....sometimes during startup....when it does a disc check it says the above....i have tried doing the disc scan and fix but it has made no difference to the problem....can anyone tell me if malware, adware etc could be the problem and if so what freeware could you recommend please....thanks all.

[galeck1947]

What OS are you using ? You could try doing a starup repair with your Windows installation disc provided you have a genuine copy to use.

[Buenchico]

I sincerely hope that Galeck1947's suggestion will help because Microsoft's own website suggests backing up everything on the drive, reformatting it and then (presumably) reinstalling the operating system, software and data. That sounds a bit drastic to me!
http://msdn.microsoft...library/ms833195.aspx

Chris

[MarkRae]

The repair option won't work here. That is designed for when the operating system has become corrupt in some way. The message that the OP is receiving indicates that the formatting information on the physical hard disk itself has become corrupt. There are some utilities which will (attempt to) repair this but, generally speaking, a complete reformat should definitely sort it. If part of the hard disk's surface has become defective to the extent that it can no longer adequately store data there, the format process will mark this segment of the drive as unavailable.

Of course, there's always the possibility that the entire hard disk has become defective - it happens... In which case, the only solution is to replace it.

[entranced]

thankyou all........the os is xp home and i forgot to mention the noise!....laptop sounds like a geiger counter crossed with a mosquito !.....oh buy and just to make matters worse, the ipod went down lastnight as well and the last time i fixed that it required restoring it to factory settings.....using the laptop of course....doh!.....go well all.....

[TTG]

Schedule chkdsk /r Look on net for more details. Try booting into recovery console and issue fixboot command.

[MarkRae]

If a computer is making "noise", chances are that it's going to be the fan or the hard disk as they are (essentially) the only moving parts inside the box.

A noisy fan can indicate that it's catching on something. This will slow it down which might cause the computer to crash because the CPU has overheated.

However, the error you're getting can only relate to the hard drive. So, it's fairly clear that it's on its last legs.

A replacement hard drive for a laptop isn't particularly expensive...