Ok, first of all, take a nice, deeeeeeeeep breath. I can feel the panic through the post, but for right now you just have to relax and focus on the task. Nervous fingers like typos.

If your drive is desperate need of correction, 40 minutes for a chkdsk /r is not at all abnormal. In fact, chkdsk /r can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and 30 minutes, depending on drive size. Most likely the errors you recieved could also be related to the corruption. Here, I'll copy my little guide to manual system restore here as well.
Boot to recovery console:

Turn on your system, tapping F12. When it gets to the Boot Device Menu, insert your Windows XP CD, and select the DVD/CD rom device. Hit Enter, and be ready to hit any key the moment it states that onscreen. It will load up the Install screen, hit R to proceed. Follow the instructions onscreen to log into Windows and get to the command prompt.

Then enter the commands

cd \Windows\system32\config
ren system system.bak
exit

Reboot into recovery console.

Once back to a command prompt, type:

cd \system~1\_resto~1
dir

Look at the folders that start with RP, and the dates they were created. Find the most recent date when it booted, then type in

cd rp[number of folder you're entering]
cd snapshot
copy _ registry_machine_sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy _ registry_machine_security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy _ registry_machine_software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy _ registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy _ registry_user_.default c:\windows\system32\config\default
exit

 

 

OMG!  You saved me!!!  Thanks so much, I'm not sure why the link above didn't help me...  I searched posts for a long time and never found what you said to do...  It worked and I am very happy...  FYI- to others searching this same issue in the future:

 

After I enter the command ren system system.bak, the computer says "The system cannot find the file or directory specified".

 

I went ahead and clicked exit and I restarted the Recovery Console, then I did all of the steps which came next.  MAKE SURE YOU PUT IN SPACES AFTER COPY below.

 

THANKS!!!! you just saved me hours of pain and lots of $$!

Happy to help ^.^

Run a repair installation using the Xp CD, if copying hives doesnot fix.

else u can do a parallel install as well. NO DATA LOSS GUARANTEED !

 

http://www.windowsxpprofessional.windowsreinstall.com/installxpcdparallell/indexfullpage.htm

Although this refers to XP Home on an Inspiron, will Pawks solution also work for a Dimension 5000

 

Thanks