My System will not boot up (Windows XP, SP2)

[Guest]

I powered down my system last week and tried to bring it back up. I get the
message "A disk read error has occured". I ran the Western Digital "Quick
Scan" on my C drive. It comes back with "No errors". I think some how I've
lost certain files for Windows XP. Question:

How can I bring my system up in "DOS Mode" only. I would like to be able to
look at my "C" drive and see if my files are still out there.

How can I get around this problem without reinstalling Windows?
How could this happen by simply "shuting down my system properly", via,
allowing the system to shut it self down, then powering off the computer.

Thanks,

Jonathan

 

[Guest]

WDC "quick scan" or the other data lifeguard nonsence they offer really
doesnt
cut it as far as diagnostics go with thier hds.Download thier MS-DOS version
to MS-DOS formatted floppy,run the tests.Disk read errors can also be the MB,
memory,etc.However thier IDE hds run good for about 5 yrs.To simply chk
the OS,boot to xp cd,recovery,in recovery type:Listsvc