invalid boot.ini file

Every time I start my pc (AMD Athlon 1.47 running Win XP) I get an invalid boot.ini file- booting from c:/windows. It also tells me it needs to run check disk. It doesn’t matter whether I run check disk or not it still wants to run it every time I turn my pc on. I have looked in scheduled tasks and can’t find where it is scheduled to run. I have tried to find my boot ini file and it won’t let me access it. I also can’t run scan disk or disk defragmenter. If I try it tells me check disk is scheduled to run. I can’t even run my system restore. Once I finally get my windows screen up my pc seems to run ok. Any suggestions other than the trash can??