Tried XP disc to recover Windows with no luck.
The hard drive has 3 partitions, C, F, and G.
Reformated drive C and attempted to re-install the OS.
The reformatting worked and files were copied, but upon the reboot where XP then takes ~25 minutes to install.... I got this!

"sxs.dll: syntax error in manifest or policy file
F:1836asms6000msftwindowscommoncontrols.man
on line 0."

WTF? I can understand the first partition being screwed up but the others? I guess now I have to do a complete 120GB format and start from square 1.

P.S. voltage dip when writing important hard drive sector? I can understand the video card being screwed up, but now it seems like the whole think went hay-wire. I am typing this on the backup hard drive and everything runs fine.

Still open to suggestions...

 

2 years? wow.

i try to reinstall windows every 9 months as a pre-emptive move against failure.

so just about everytime i reboot my *nix machines I reinstall windows.

 

it sounds like possibly corrupt memory. it'll say files are corrupt if windows tries to load them into a corrupt segment of memory.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by The Unabageler
[B]it sounds like possibly corrupt memory.

 

I would say boot sector virus first. Boot with a DOS disk created from a win98 machine. If you can, I would just start from scratch... but either way, start with

fdisk /mbr

 

I don't have the patience to read the whole thread, but my guess is that you replaced your hard drive with an ATA100 drive or your new motherboard supports ATA100 where your old one didn't.

If you didn't replace the drive ribbon cable with a NEWER cable that is ATA100 compatible you will get the kind of errors you're describing. Try changing the drive cables.

 

Thanks for all of the advice/recommendations. I blew everything away and started from scratch. I forgot how long it takes to do a full format on a 120GB drive. Anyway...

I reinstalled, XP, all the MS updates, Nortons System Works 2003, Go Back, ZoneAlarm Pro, Nero, and CDClone4. After CDClone reboot, the system would not load windows properly. I got it into safe mode and decided to skip the system restore for one more reboot. Upon rebooting, system would not go back into safemode, nor would it load the OS in any of the other choices (e.g. Normal, Safe w/Prompt, Safe w/ Networking), it just kept rebooting after every choice.

I don't know what to make of it other than CDClone could be corrupt, Go Back should not have been installed (it was behaving wierd - I've never used it), bad RAM, or bad Power Supply.

I am leaning toward power supply or CDClone. System and I need a break tonight. Try again tomorrow. If no reboot, blew away again and start over.

 

Speaking of Video cards I had one go bad in a 3 year old Gateway 500 mhz. I went down to my local cheap computer store and bought an Nvidea 64 something or other. Took it home and nada, double beep on boot up. Took it back they gave me another one, same problem. Took it back he plugged it into a computer there and verified both boards were bad, got a third from stock, you guessed it bad. The fourth one worked and it is still working. I guess it was a bad lot. So it could be just the video board. Pursue this before you drive yourself nuts. Unless it is too late.

 

Thinking about it over coffee, I am going to say that the power supply, video etc are good. The reason, it runs just fine on the other hard drive. Therefore, using sound troublshooting logic it could be the hard drive I am using (typically failure is complete failure) or a bug in one of the programs or drivers.

I will use the Win98 boot disk to fdisk and start over. I will load CDClonefirst to ensure that program clears. I don't know, we'll give it another try.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tim S2K
[B]Thinking about it over coffee, I am going to say that the power supply, video etc are good.