Quick update for general interest.
Son finally got through to Gateway. Nice girls says, I'm glad you asked me that now, cos so many people start the Recovery, and then phone to ask where all their files are. It launches into FDISK or equivalent instantly then formats.
How considerate of them.
He's just come back from the store with W7 and a new HD. One awaits with baited breath - but this CHKDSK thing worries me. Exactly what happened to me when I had two drives on XP - hope his files are there to copy across.