Angela,
This is serious. You don't quote any error messages other than the one from scandisk ("all to no avail" really doesn't say much), but maybe that doesn't even matter.
It seems to me the only thing left is format the hard disk. This will wipe out everything, but recreate the FAT. However, all data not on a backup (diskette, CD or another computer) will be lost.
It might well be that the hard disk is defective, and then format will give an error also. Then try fdisk to delete and recreate the partition. If the format then succeeds do a scandisk including surface check. A failing hard disk generally is a bad sign. Be extra careful backing up things, and be prepared you have to buy a new one in the near future, if not right now.
Booting from the bootdisk, you can't chkdsk and scandisk, but can you look in the folders (dir c: ), go to other folders (c:, cd \, cd "My Documents") and copy information to another diskette? That would be most helpful to retrieve files before formatting.
Otherwise, there is a lot of datarecovery software to be found. It will analyse the disk even if there's an error in the FAT, and possibly find a lot of files it can recover, including the term paper data. I don't have any experience with such software so can't give you a recommendation. Try finding such with google or on the usual download sites, or post again (possibly on the Computer Help forum, which has more visitors). Some have a free demo mode showing what they can retrieve if you decide to buy the programs. That's a sensible way of doing it, I should say.
Good luck,
Kees
Friend's computer (her 17 year old has a term paper due Thursday) won't even boot up. Ran scandisk from MS DOS - scandisk found error in FAT 32 cluster 2 that it cannot repair... Let me preface the steps that I have taken by saying that I am fairly computer literate - knowing just enough to tinker and do my own minor repairs and upgrades, and enough to know when to say when and consult... I am not so familiar with MS DOS - although tonight I am feel pretty intimate, albeit inadequate. On advice form faq posted online, I have attempted to run chkdsk, unsuccessfully as it insists on scandisk instead, I have attempted to scan and restore the registry, I have booted from a disk I created on my own pc, and I have attempted to reistall Windows 98. All to no avail. I am fantastic at following directions, and humble when I ask for help... Any advice would be sincerely appreciated. Feel free to email me. Angela

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