vista just told me my hard disk is failing!

If you're in Windows, it can't read the ext2 or ext3 that Linux uses, but it shouldn't show up at all :S. Maybe it's corrupt? Did you shutdown incorrectly?

 

might have lost the partition somehow and that would require it to be re-partitioned (windows will do this) then formated?

Not to sure, never had that happen before.

An update on my HDD failure though. I got the drive from BestBuy so I called them, its been 2 months but they took it back under manufactors warrenty and gave me a new one on the spot hassle free so im happy and my data is back ^^

 

I know this. The 40GB was partitioned like this 20 GB Linux (ext3) and 20gb FAT32. On Windows the HD showed with 20GB normally. I always shutdown correctly and never had problems with HD's.

I powered the PC, selected Linux on the grub menu and all i got was a black screen. Re-started the PC, booted Win XP and when i select the D: drive this message shows up : This HD is not formatted. Do you want to format it now? YES/NO

I re-started the PC again, with the Ubuntu Live CD, and tried to use Gparted to see what was going one. It says the HD is not formatted.

Thank god i always back up my work projects on my pendrive. Still, i'll have to re-install Ubuntu and configurate everything.