
i think windows xp is defaulting to "chkdsk" for error checking. i'd rather use norton utilities to manage m hard drive.
is there any way around this??

You can try this command on the partition that NDD refuses to repair: chkdsk /X /FC:\>chkdsk /?
Checks a disk and displays a status report.
CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[ize]]
volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount point, or volume name.
filename FAT only: Specifies the files to check for fragmentation.
/F Fixes errors on the disk.
/V On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file on the disk. On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any.
/R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information (implies /F).
/Lize NTFS only: Changes the log file size to the specified number of kilobytes. If size is not specified, displays current size.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid (implies /F).
/I NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries.
/C NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder structure.
The /I or /C switch reduces the amount of time required to run Chkdsk by
skipping certain checks of the volume.