Windows XP SP2 fresh install as of last week, now problems.

[MedievalMan]

I recently installed fresh (newly formatted hard drive) Windows XP SP2 edition on my computer (ALthon 2400+, 512 mb, Asus nforce2 mb, etc).
This was because my old install of Windows XP (3 or so years old) was starting to wear a little thin / operate slowly.

Anyhoo, only a few days later, I'm getting boot problems.

1st: isapnp.sys file was missing or corrupt, so I went into the repair console by booting up with the cd and replaced the file.
This resolved that issue but more occurred.

2nd: now my computer hangs (auto reboots) when trying to boot into Windows, just as it's about to hit the startup screen. Note, that it gets past loading isapnp.sys, and the same problem occurs even when using safe mode. I used F8 upon booting up to select "disable rebooting upon computer error", and an blue screen of death came up at the same time instead. It reported some address ranges that were bad, and recommended I scan for viruses and scan disk.

3rd: I scanned for viruses with NOrton 2005 bootup disk, none found. I used chkdsk /p in recovery console, and a few errors were found on the hard drive.

NOTE; something I found was very wierd. When I tried to access my D:\ partition (I have C:\ for installs, D:\ for data) it said could not access volume. I ran chkdsk on D:\, it found an error, and then I was able to access it.

However, in the recovery console, I can't access any directories, or even copy them, besides the windows directory, because it tells me "ACCESS DENIED". I Need to back-up some data before I think of reinstalling Windows, what is this message for?

I have a diagnosis that I believe my hard drive is on the verge of dying. It's less than a year old, however, this is the 2nd time in a few months that a system file has become corrupt, and now all this.

Any ideas on how to resolve these issues?

[Play_The_0dds]

seems most of the post i make here say the same thing.
this is a old trick i learned back in the good old days of OS2.
when you format or delete a partition with windows utilities you are not erasing the disk, you are removing the file protection (so windows knows it can write over that file's disk space again) or the partition information. when you reinstalled after a format you basically wrote over the old information that was still on the disk. now it is comming back to haunt you in the form of ghost files, xp is trying to read the old file info from the last install(or the old info is mixing in with the new).
this was not a problem with 9X systems running fat file systems.
ntfs systems need to have a (zero write/packet write/low level format) all three names mean the exact same thing, just depends on your utility. this erases everything on the disk, boot sector and all, which if you have a bootable xp disk, you can patition and format with it by following the easy install steps. do not use the quick mode of any of these utilities, the full packet write will take hours, and depends on the size of the drive(s). if you have a second computer, or a buddy, make sure they have a good virus scanner and slave your drive to it and grab the files you want to keep.

[MedievalMan]

"which if you have a bootable xp disk, you can patition and format with it by following the easy install steps. "

When I reformatted, I did not use the quick options.

THe full formatting in the provided XP utility took over an hour I believe.

DId this provide low level formatting or do I need to use another utility to peform that?

Thanks,

Matt Lawson

[Play_The_0dds]

thats what i was trying to explain in the above post, windows utilities do not erase a disk fully. if you bought a hard drive for your computer, chances are it would come with a disk, that would have a zero write option, which will erase the disk and solves many problems with machines that have been reinstalled multiple times.
EDIT: you can find free utilities on the net at software download sites like downloads.com, or tucows......the utility you want to use will say, secure erase, packet write, or low level format. if you run what i describe it will take hours(like 4-6) and completely remove everything from the drive. this is well worth the effort as you will notice alot of performance return to your machine.