I am completly new to linux. I had knoppix 3.7 installed on my laptop for me for use on a uni project. I have been using it exactly as installed since October and been fine. I haven't messed around with any settings, I've just used it to do my work and been happy.

For absolutely no reason that I can see, today it has decided not to boot up properly.

I have searched forums and found other people who have had the same problems, but I don't understand the replies they have recieved.

It goes as normal until it strarts checking the root file system.

I then get:

fsck 1.35
WARNING: Your /etc/fstab does not contain the fsck passno field.

fsck.ext2: is a directory while trying to open /
/:
the superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

fsck failed. Please repair manually and reboot. Please note that the root file system is currently mounted read-only. To remount it read-write: etc

How do I repair it? Or what can I do to at least get things up and running so that I can retrieve my project work somehow. I can access the directry the work is in but it won't mount the floppy drive properly so there is no where I can transfer it to.

Please help, and please remember I have no idea what I'm doing, so you'll need to be precise.