just switched on my ps3 and it asked for theh hard drive to be rebuilt. try rebuilding and it says an error has occured and i have to format the hard drive.

Anybody had this problem or is there anything i can try to resolve the problem without formatting and losing all my data.

Could just be a plain hard drive failiure, has the PS3 been knocked or dropped at any point?

I would contact the Playstation helpline, they may be able to help you.

never been dropped or knocked. do you have the playstation helpline number to hand??

Happened to me on release day, exchanged it for a new one!

exchanged just the hard drive or the ps3??

both

My HDD is throwing errors too. If i take it back though, won't i lose all the games i payed for and downlaoded?

No you won't lose them. You can set up the same PSN ID and account you have on your current PS3 on the new one and download them again. You just need to go to your download history at the top of the main store page and download them from there.