Same problem here. Machine is only about 3 weeks old, and out of the blue came the "One of your disks needs to be checked for conistency" message on boot up. The check process ticks down and freezes on the last second. Re-boot, and pressing Any Key before the 15 second count-down is complete generally allows the login screen, and from there the Desktop. However... Defrag does not show C: as being a drive that is defragmentable... in fact, it doesn't show C: at all. System Restore likewise recognizes a problem on C: and will not restore until the error is fixed. Using System Restore, there is hot button that is labeled "Check The Disk For Errors" and that results in two tickable choices:
1) Automatically Fix File System Errors
2) Scan and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors
However ..... Only the 2nd option is allowable or doable, because if the 1st option is ticked, an error message pops up saying: "Windows can't check hard disk while it is in use" ....... That, is about as oxymoronic as it gets! Unbelievable!
Anyway, ran Option 2 above, which ran for about 3 or more hours, (750 GB drive), and in the end, reported that it found no problems.
From the C: prompt, as an "Administrtor;" ran SFC / SCANNOW as well as CHKDSK ... and neither utitlity found any problems on C:. CHKDSK /F was not allowed, but was scheduled at next re-boot..... It too did not run when machine was re-booted, but stalled and froze just like the System-invoked check that started all this mess.
Basically, the System goes in useless circles with all these error messages, and has the user chasing his or her own tail until finally one realizes that it is all for naught.
The machine is going back to the store tonight.
Bring Back XP !!!