Windows XP boot problem

[apovey]

A freind of mine phoned me last night to say he is having trouble with his computer and could I possibly have a look at it for him.

The computer starts up and gets as far as the Windows XP screen and then freezes up and won't go any further.

All anti-virus software is updated apparently.

Not sure if they have tried it in Safe Mode, but I will try that tonight when I go round their house.

I had a similar problem on one of my PCs a few years ago and it turned out to be a hard drive failure.

Is there anyway I can do a scandisk without having to use Windows XP?

Can it be done in DOS, if so, how do I boot up in dos and what do I need to do?

Any other ideas as to what the problem may be, and also any checks/ tests I can do to try and diagnose what the fault is?

Would using/ having the Windows XP CD system disk be of any use at all?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Statica]

If the filesystem is NTFS then you could try using the Ultimate Boot CD and run a diagnostic. But the first step would be to try and boot to safe mode and see what the issue is. It's realistically more likely to be a software issue than a hardware. Also ask to see exactly when these started .. people forget to mention things like a crash during a software install or a power outage or something of that nature.