Re-install XP format left garbage on disk?

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Guest

QUESTION: Is there any way previous data could have survived a correct
re-format/re-install of XP Pro, booting from its installation CD?
BACKGND: After fatal corruption from an early release of Office Pro 2003 i
inflicted on my new XP Pro system, I booted from XP's installation CD,
deleted & re-created the only partition of 156+GB (NTFS) (with 8MG
unpartitioned space), re-installed XP Pro, & tossed the Office CD. On my
"clean" system, I see much garbled data in the MSN app I had to re-download
to use my MSN browser. Their techs swear the data viewed in their Calendar is
on my computer & not their server. Indeed it is data Calendar previously
imported from the buggy Outlook app. I am baffled, but want a "clean"
install. Thanks for any insights! (I'm on my 3rd re-install in 2 weeks &
getting very good at it, unfortunately)
 
Stupid as this sounds, but it is fact. You can install garbage by having a
thumbprint on the CD.
If the only version having that problem is yours, you've located the source. I
keep a roll of toilet paper on the desk just for dirty CD's.
Just finished a game that crashed in the same place every time. Thumbnail on
the CD. uninstalled, cleaned CD, reinstalled, runs fine now.
 
Perhaps your hard drive is damaged. You mentioned having to reformat and
reinstall 3x over the past 2 weeks. Another issue could be if your version
of XP does not have SP1 or SP2 imbedded then it can't format a drive larger
that 137GB. Your drive is larger and therefore might not have been
completely reformatted. You can create a slipstream version of XP by
following the instructions here
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/slipstream.htm
 
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