"My Computer" freeze

When I click on "My Computer" on the Start Menu, nothing happens - the system freezes for a time, then unfreezes after a few minutes. If I have other programs open, I can continue to use them, but the Start Menu remains in place. Once it disappears, I can access the various drives directly using a short-cut - c:, da partition), G: & Hexternal drives), as well as my cd and dvd drives - and operate as usual. however, whatever drive I'm viewing, the same thing happens if I press the "up" icon, only it doesn't unfreeze readily - I have to end it using Task Manager.

My operating system is XP Professional with SP 2. This behavior began only this morning. I have run System Mechanic 6's repair module, and have run system restore, going back to yesterday's restore point, when things were working fine, but neither step solved the problem. I did note with System Mechanic that it reported a failure to correct a problem at the index verification stage. When I run Chkdsk in the DOS window, it hangs up at the same stage, so I suspect that is the source of the problem.

I thought it might be a virus, but my Zone Alarm Security Suite can't seem to find anything. I'm assuming that removing and reinstalling the operation system from scratch could well solve the problem, but it's a pain in the butt, and I was wondering if anyone could think of some other thing to try first.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

If Pete's Hard drive utility checkup can not find any troubles and you have tried system restore with no success XP Repair might be worth a try.


http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897