Serious Windows Error

[SpitefulKitty]

Hey everyone!

When my friend and I were using the computer today, something odd happened. He went to the start menu to turn the computer off. He pressed a button on the keyboard intending to shut the computer down, but we think he hit something else by accident. The screen went black, but the moniter and computer were still powered on.  I left the room while he "fixed" it and shut it down.

Well, I get on again later when he left, and upon the computer booting up, I get a box that says that the system recovered from a serious error.  It was identical to the one posted in this link.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Windows-XP-3282/Serious-Error-1.htm

I hit send error report and it hasn't popped up again after giving it a few test restarts. However, you can never be too careful with these things. I just want to know if it's something worth fretting over or not. Thanks in advance.

[Zylstra]

Sounds like you have a disk error

Check this document out:
http://www.computerhope.com/software/scandisk.htm

Notice:
Scandisk may take a long time to finish. (In many cases, up to 3 hours or more, depending on if errors are found or not)

[SpitefulKitty]

Thank you for the response!

I ran a scan and it finished quickly. After it was done, a little box came up saying it was complete, but then there was nothing else. I suppose it's safe to assume there are no errors, right?
Could the error message have been caused by something "small"?

[unlovedwarrior]

can you boot into normal or safe mode?

[SpitefulKitty]

I boot it into safe mode and ran the scan again. I got the same results - it completed it, and that's it. It didn't say anything about detecting any errors.

I notice that sometime whenever I run the scandisk, whether it's in safe mode or the...um....non-safe mode (not sure what it's called, but it's the mode you use for everything else), I'll start a scan, and sometimes a box comes up that says "Unable to finish scan". But if I run the scan again, it will usually finish it that time. Is that a bad thing, or is that common?

Do you guys think the serious error I got could just be a fluke?

[unlovedwarrior]

try chdsk /f notice the space between k /f when it asks you preform on restart press y then enter and restart let it run

[Zylstra]

You are using Windows XP, correct?

When you go into My Computer, you are right clicking the drive that your operating system is installed on, correct?
(Thats usually the C: drive)

If so, do what UnlovedWarrior said (Click Start> Run>Then type the command)

[unlovedwarrior]

oh sorry forgot the start run part my bad OP

[SpitefulKitty]

Hey guys! I did that start -->run-->chckdsk thingy, and ran it two times - while the computer was running, and during a restart. Once again, nothing was found.

So, do you think the error may have been a fluke, or it just fixed itself? Anyone?

[unlovedwarrior]

have you experienced the problem lately

[Fed]

I don't think you have a problem at all, I think your 'friend' couldn't shutdown so he turned it off at the button causing Windows to throw its normal hissy fit.