Scandisk stuck in a loop!

Gazette Reader Jim J. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

I ran defrag on my hard drive using Windows XP PRO. Having completed that, I clicked on Scandisk to check the drive for errors. It was at this point that a window popped up and told me to shut down and reboot to run Scandisk. Now I can't get back into my system! Every time my system boots, it goes through the Scandisk. 3 hours later, it finishes Scandisk, then reboots the system... and restarts the process over again. When I try and cancel Scandisk, the computer freezes! Any suggestions? "

My Response:

I tried to find the solution to this problem through google and Microsoft but to no avail. I had a similar problem with Windows 2000 and ended up having to restore from a backup to resolve the problem.

I would suggest one thing -- try booting into SAFE MODE (press F8 at the pre-boot screen, select SAFE MODE). Once the system is booted, schedule a Scandisk on the drive -- don't do a thorough check on it, just scan for "simple" errors. Hopefully this will reset Scandisk.

Update 2002/09/03: This topic has been updated; click below to read:

Windows and Scandisk stuck in a Loop?, Part 2