Non-techie here.  I finally bit the bullet and decided to upgrade from
Windows 98 to XP and did the install last night.  Once done, everything
seemed to work perfectly - I could access the internet, all my programs,
files, etc.  The computer needed to reboot to complete work I was trying to
do to set up a home network so my husband and I could share a printer.  Since
shutting down, however, I've been unable to log back in.  I get the following
message:

Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system FAT32
One of yoru disks needs to be check for consistency.  You may cancel the
disk check, but it is strongly recommended that you continue.
Windows will now check the disk.
Volume Serial Number is 2A5F-14F5
Windows is verifying files and folers...
(then it gives me the percentage of the work completed until 100%)
\WINDOWS\DUMP5baf.tmp is cross-linked on allocation unit 1009756.

This is where the program freezes (or would reboot until I turned off the
automatic reboot).

I'm running an IBM compatible machine.  Don't know anything more about it or
how to find out....

I understood from the literature that I would have an opportunity to choose
either FAT432 or NTFS (not that those terms mean anything to me) but I don't
remember that being an option while installing.  Perhaps I just need to
choose the NTFS because - ???  But how do I do that?

I am unable to reboot in safe mode - I just get a screen full of text (file
names? file locations?) and the computer makes a working, kind of chuffing
sound (makes the same sound when it stalls out ofter checking the disks for
consistency).

PLEASE HELP!!