Here is my problem:

Two days ago, due to a sudden power outage while my PC (running Windows XP3) is on, my 2 hard disks on the PC, namely C: and D: are showing 'problems'.

D: has nothing much of major importance but old documents and files of no immediate use or urgency. (That is to say, not life-threatening... yet).

C: has Windows, and all my current work (files, etc). I cannot afford to lose them. However, I managed to have a back-up of it just before the power outage.

Now, whenever my computer starts up, it is doing the 'disk-checking'. Takes a lot of time. So I have decided to stop the disk checking by 'press any key within 9 sec' as instructed at Windows start-up. It works, but I am not sure what other collateral damages may have by my doing that.

Also, I have looked at the registry, namely:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, and
\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager
in the BootExecute entry, it shows
autocheck autochk *

Drive D is found to have a Master File corruption (which is not my focal point in this thread).

Drive C is still working (I am using the PC to write this in this Thread).

How do I stop Windows from doing the disk-checking at start-up altogether, knowing that the problems are there

I am a NEWBIE... so help me by giving me intructions in detail, step by step.

Thanks a lot.