Oh dear, since I got home the laptop has started complaining about corrupt files... small temp ones at first... but now config files, startup programs and normal programs are going one by one.

Seeing how the problem seems to be incrementing.. would you call it a dying drive?

I'm copying over my docs to the second drive now but it looks like I've already lost quite a few things, then I'll run a full chkdisk overnight... hopefully it'll sort it out but I have my doubts...