You shouldn't lose anything if it's this problem, it's a 2 minute fix
1 - Boot from the XP CD.
2 - At the first screen it will ask you if you want to install a fresh copy of windows or goto the recovery console, press'r' to goto the recovery console.
3 - Type 'chkdsk /p' and press enter.
4 - After it's finished type 'fixboot' and press enter.
5 - Answer yes to the next question.
6 - When it's finished type 'exit' and press enter.
The machine will reboot, problem solved
