I have a laptop that is constantly blue screen (various errors) and when a check disk is done at next reboot it finds various files (ones I was using, like a webpage I was onwhen it crashed, or game files or music) and says this...
"first allocation unit is not valid. the entry will be truncated." I am on the 3rd hard disk now as 2 before seem to have died (sounds like crashed heads, prob from the reboots!) I restore XP using the supplied discs each time so dont think its a software error (all upto date with XP site) Anyone any idea what this is before my 3rd hard disk in 2 weeks breaks ? thanks.

Have you got ample security for the sites you are visiting, firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware etc?

Yea use zonealarm and avg, dont think its a software issue.

Could Be A Memory Prob

An vanman said, try different ram. If it's dodgy and the thing keeps crashing it will corupt the drive so scandisk will find errors.

Could Be A Memory Prob

I agree make sure that you have same memory in each slot eg 256 and 256 512 and 512 etc ;)

Thanks, I'm checking memory now (a prog that runs from a bootable CD) Been going now for 2.5 hours with no errors found, hope it find something though will be easy for me to replace memory. I think its a 512 + 256 module Craig. Will keep you updated :)

assuming the memory is fine , id make sure you update all of your drivers as a bad driver can easily screw windows up, also you've already gone through 2 drives ?? do you do aerobics while holding the laptop :banana: