experience before case like this, but if im not mistaken ....the steps you do, step 5 and step 6 and below is totally unrelated...

if not mistaken ,your brother HDD installed with XP, and that will store new info when you plug in your com, and that will cause overwrite of hardware profile, and casing HDD boot-up failure. i don't know how's it happen...i jst happen like that to me last time..i just reformat it using other computer...

but i think ur hdd is really got problem since it will jam at certain percentage...just RMA it before it's too late.

ic...it just the file system been corrupted if not mistaken, personally i never try windows system repair, but i heard my friend and after google sum information on it, it won't effect you file, it only repair the corrupted file.

here is sum web that maybe can help you out.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-repa...ws-XP-t138.html

http://www.informationweek.com/news/window...cleID=189400897