XP Pro hosed - corrupt files

[dprocket]

I've had my new system up and running for about 2 weeks, and have slowly been adding my software. Not much is on it, except some Office programs, Roxio ECC and also some music files. I just started using it today and started getting some weird messages (I think it said that c:/$msft is corrupted...I don't recall exactly what the file name was, but it was something like this because it was something that was new to me...) about certain files being corrupted. I started Easy CD Creator and burned a CD even though XP was telling me the .exe file was corrupted. Windows Media Player wouldn't start either because it said it was corrupted.

I tried to reboot the system and get the "Error Loading Operating System" message when it tries to boot.

I booted from my XP Pro cd to see if I could repair the installation, but it no longer does the auto repair. THe only option I have is to enter the repair console which I am not really comfortable with since i don't know what I'm doing.

I just checked my BIOS, and there is a new version of the ABIT KD-7 BIOS available, although that does not seem to me like it would be the problem. Could this be a hardware issue? A BIOS issue? I could do a fresh format/install of XP since I would not lose TOO much, although I don't want to do this if I can fix this and also learn in the process. Thanks in advance for your help.

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (Thoroughbred) w/packaged heatsink
Abit KD-7 MB
Maxtor 160GB
Antec SLK3700AMB Super Mid Tower (350 Watt p/s)
(2) Kingston 256MB PC 2100 DDR
(2) K-Byte 256MB PC 2700 DDR
PNY GeForce4 MX440se 64MB DDR AGP Video Card

 

[kursplat]

first make sure the version of Roxio ECC is the one for XP. earlyer versions will hose your system from what i understand. if it's not the correct one delete it and see if that clears it up.

if your still having trouble you can do a repair install by booting from the XP cd and tell it to install (as from scratch). when you get to selecting the partion to install to , it will say you already have an OS on it and ask about doing a repair. i've done it a couple times ( 1 of mine and once for a friend) and it saved everything usable.

good luck

 

[dprocket]

I think Roxio was the right version, although I can't even boot to Windows XP to find out. I tried doing the repair/install, but it's telling me that my partition is "either too full, damaged, or not formated, or formatted with an incompatible file system". Obviously, the partition WAS ok, since it was running fine in the past couple of days. Could this be a Hard Drive failure?

 

[kursplat]

ok ... did you check the ribbon on the hard drive ? make sure it's pluged in correctly. check ALL the connections . also strip it down to basics. 1 stick of ram , CPUw\cooler , vid card , hard drive only . if it still no go , try a different stick of memory. and so forth. i'm assuming you can get into the bios. load the setup defaults. if you want to check the harddrive try the Power Max utility . download it and you can make a bootable floppy from it. most of the tests are safe for your data. it will warn you if it's going to overwrite something.

is this drive NTFS file system or FAT32 ? you can try installing the drive in another comp , with a compatible file system , and see if the files are intact and save what you can before anything else happens.
try those and see where you end up
good luck

 

[dprocket]

OK, I can try these things. I've already run the PowerMax tool. I've run all of the basic, non-data destroying, tests and they passed. These test also confirm that my ribbons are plugged in correctly. The drive was formatted NTFS. What really gets me is that this thing went from being fine to total melt down in a matter of a few hours. Very little hints that something was going wrong either...just won't boot into Windows.

I can get into the BIOS just fine. I'll remove everything excepts the basics and see what happens. What could cause windows files to all get corrupted like this? This just seems too strange.