Vista--CHKDSK freezing--WTF?

This is a HP laptop running Vista Home Premium. Last night everything was fine, system shutdown normally.

Just now I turned the laptop on, and CHKDSK started (why isn't it possible to skip the check, if it is which key is the right one to hit?). Froze at 5%. Reboot, gets to 7% before hanging and has stayed there (~30 minutes now).

Is there any way to bypass this? I'm not sure what triggered the check in the first place and I'm frankly very confused as to why it decided to trigger (I did d/l a Thunderbird backup util, but it never actually got installed before this happened).

This makes me nervous... I would try to run Vista off the install disc, if you have one, and do the CHKDSK off that.

It COULD possibly be the HD failing. (I hate saying that.)

Damn. This thing didn't come with an install disc, and I was planning to make one just when this happened. It's just over a year old...probably still under warranty where I bought it. I have a spare laptop HDD someplace.

ETA: I was able to use Knoppix to grab my Thunderbird data; all I really need is the past couple months of emails. Now I'm curious as to what was corrupted and where (i.e. where does chkdsk start scanning and is there a way to tell what sector caused it to die?). I'm guessing the confused sector is involving the OS, but have no way to be certain.

Welp, I should know in a few days what went wrong and how much it would cost to fix. If the HDD does get replaced, I will get the original back so can play with it to see what happened.