At powerON NTFS file system takes an hr to checkdisk then repeats continuously BUT won't launch WINDOWS XP?

Question

Is anyone else having the same problem.?PLEASE tell me if the sequence below sounds familiar ....at power ON it comes up 'Checking File system on C : The type of the file system is NTFS, The volume is clean,windows has finished checking the disk.'THEN it says ' Checking file system on C :
CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5 )...AND it goes through the 5 stages and after an hour of doing this process it KEEPS repeating the same sequence over and over BUT won't launch Windows ?! it was working fine this morning ! I wonder if this is a VIRUS issue as I read on MSN News there's a virus goin around today with similar consequences.( i've got Windows Live onecare antibirus installed yesterday)...has anyone else experienced this scenario ? will be grateful if anyone can //HELP us out ...

Answer 1

If it is a virus, like suggested, you'll have to go into safe mode to scan. However, If you're unable to get into safe mode because of similar situation. You're drive probably has bad sectors that you can attempt to repair using an XP CD. Boot your computer with the XP and on the first screen you'll have the option to open the recovery console by pressing R. It will open a console screen, and from here you'll have to select the windows partition you want to load which in most cases is displayed as 1 and enter that. You may also be asked for an administrator password.
Once all said and done, enter chkdsk /p at the command prompt. This will tell chkdsk to attempt to fix any bad sectors it finds. Let it run through and reboot the computer when done. After scanning and running chkdsk and it still does not work. You likely have a drive that is showing signs that it may fail in the near future. There are some utilities such as Ultimate Boot Cd you can use or reformat the drive (under the assumption that files are backed up or considered irretrievable) I'd check to see if it's still under warranty which now is from 3 to 5 years for the manufacturer, just to be safe

Answer 2

Try running your antivirus program in Safe Mode. This way no programs will be loaded and hopefully you will catch self-executable viruses.

Turn your PC on or Restart. As soon as you see the black and white screen, press and hold the F8 key. Continue holding until you see a black and white menu. Safe Mode is F3 or F5. From Start, Programs, run your AV program.

When it is finished, Restart. You will probably find your icons messed up. No biggee. Drag them back into place.

If this doesn't do it, I found that when running an error check or scandisk it kept repeating because it was getting interrupted by programs running in the background. For this reason, I now run Error check and defrag in Safe Mode.