I do not have a beard, but I detest problems which cannot be solved - somehow.
You are not the only person to have experienced this:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hard..._21408843.html
I'm not magnanimous enough to cough up the $9.95 they want (and there is no guarantee of a solution).
The way I see it:
(a) You need the original floppy drive which came with the machine (or a replacement from Ebay or somesuch); or
(b) You mount the laptop's drive in a desktop with an 2.5" to 3.5" adaptor (PM me if you need to borrow mine) and fsck the thing there.
Assuming the lady in question would like to hold onto the machine for a while, (a) seems the best option. If there are really important data on the machine, (b) is preferable, as you've more control over what is going on.
BOFH