I ran AVG and Spybot, on my wife's computer, before I went to work this morning.
AVG found nothing and Spybot found only tracking cookies.
I shut it down and went to work.

Tonight, it won't get past the splash screen.
I tried to get into the repair console and it freezes when it looks for an OS.
I tried to install another W2k on the partition and it freezes when it looks for an OS.

I set the HD to slave and used another HD for master, loaded W2k and I can access the slave drive. That would mean the HD is OK and it is a software problem?

I can transfer her files, email and etc. to the master HD, but I would love to know how to fix the problem so the original HD would boot.

Nasty one. What would I do? I'd cut my losses and not fart around with a situation that won't even get you into the start gate.

Since you have successfully saved all the data, I would wipe the disk (remembering to use the FDISK /MBR facility to re-write the master boot record) and rebuild the system from the Windows CD.

I know this brings a set of potential problems on its own with activations and so on, but they're far more straightforward to handle than the frustrations of fixing a goner.