registry frustration!!!

[monoman]

hi,

i have had my computer for just over a year and have used it for gaming, working, net surfing.. just about everything. recently my computer crashed and i had to restart it but when it came to rebooting it gave me this message, "windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM." far from being an expert with computers, i had to pay 'The PC Doctor' to come round and fix it. he managed to get it working again with all my hard drive data in tact. GREAT!!...A week later it happened again and i was so frustrated that i have just deleted all of my hard drive data and done a clean installation of XP, and shelled out 50 pounds on norton antivirus on top! Now my computer is running, but it is still crashing all the time, taking ages to perform simple tasks, and not allowing me to run games that i have previously played at full speed and quality. Also my hard drive is making loud whislting noises all the time! even when i am not doing anything. can anyone PLEEEEASE tell me how to solve this problem?

thanks alot monoman

(ps. i have not made any hardware changes at all from the start)

 

[terii]

Have you considered the idea that you may have a bad hard drive?? I have seen the same problem you report caused by a bad HD. You should run some diagnostics on your HD and check other hardware components like RAM etc.

 

[monoman]

lol yeh i think that must be the problem. can you please tell me how to run those diagnostics on RAM and hard drive? if there are too many for you to describe can you please send me a link that i can use to guide me through it?

thanks, monoman

 

[terii]

Google for memtest86. I beleive you have to run it from a bootable floppy or CD. Run it overnight and see what errors it reports.

As for your HD find out what make and model you have. Then visit the manufacturers web site. There you will find downloadable files which will check the drive. Free of course as with memtest86 as well.