I loaded XP using a clean install starting with a cleanly formatted drive. Everything seemed well for about four weeks. During this period I was impressed with the crisp trouble free operation of XP. Suddenly, the system locked up. When rebooting, Scandisk found a very large number of cross linked files. So many files were lost that it was necessary to rebuild the system, again with a clean install. Due to backups, I was able to recover almost all my data. Within a day or so the system crashed again but this time the problem was a corrupted Hive or registry file. At this point, I then found that everytime I rebuilt the system, it would crash within a day or so as a resuilt of either a large number of crosslinked files or a corrupted hive/registry file.
I suspected a bad HDD and replaced it (60 Gig IBM). This did not solve the problem so I replaced the Abit P3V4X mobo with an ASUS ST6. Problem still not solved. After two weeks of frustration I finally called Microsoft and paid $35.00 for a pay for support call (an excellent service). After much troubleshooting we discovered that one of my expansion cards, an Adaptec 2910 SCSI card, was not on Microsoft's compatibility list. The technician also had a body of circumstantial evidence in his database, from other calls, that this card could cause problems. I replaced it with a 2930 (a compatible card per both Microsoft & Adaptec). This seemed to solve the problem as everything has worked fine for two weeks now.
This incident really raises some red flags. A piece of hardware, not at all related to the hard disk storage system, can cause corrupted files. I have to wonder if a malfunction of a compatible card can also corrupt files.
Has anyone else had similar probelms?
I suspected a bad HDD and replaced it (60 Gig IBM). This did not solve the problem so I replaced the Abit P3V4X mobo with an ASUS ST6. Problem still not solved. After two weeks of frustration I finally called Microsoft and paid $35.00 for a pay for support call (an excellent service). After much troubleshooting we discovered that one of my expansion cards, an Adaptec 2910 SCSI card, was not on Microsoft's compatibility list. The technician also had a body of circumstantial evidence in his database, from other calls, that this card could cause problems. I replaced it with a 2930 (a compatible card per both Microsoft & Adaptec). This seemed to solve the problem as everything has worked fine for two weeks now.
This incident really raises some red flags. A piece of hardware, not at all related to the hard disk storage system, can cause corrupted files. I have to wonder if a malfunction of a compatible card can also corrupt files.
Has anyone else had similar probelms?
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