Hi all... I'm very much a newbie, and in major need of help

Here's the problem:

I'm running linux based on the 2.4.19 kernel, on a 1G Celeron PC. However, booting up seems to be a problem. This has been happening quite frequently, however it usually can be overcome by reinstalling the software. But, after a few times of use, it seems to happen again. Would really appreciate some help, it's not fun to reinstall all the time. Here's the error message upon boot up:

/ contains a file system with errors check forced
/:
**************************************53.6%
Inode 589657 has illegal blocks
/: Unexpected inconsistency
: Run fsck manually

* fsck fails here, it hangs thereafter....

Thank you.

It sounds like you are shutting down improperly. You cannot turn off your computer when linux is running, you must allow it to close open files and unmount the drives first.

You should also use ext3 filesystem if your not already.

If it always reports the same inode
your HDD might be dieing, and you
maybe should start looking for replacement. :)

Cheers,
Tink

check your system through badblocks once

Thanks for the suggestions, but the system was shut down properly, and is using etx3.

Maybe i should check on the inodes.... i've been noticing the very same inodes appearing.