Unsuccsessful Installs

[Jay]

I recently formated my drive because my computer was
restarting on it's own after running for about 30 seconds
(except in safe mode). Before formatting, chdsk found and
repaired some corrupt files. The win xp install worked
after the the format. I updated windows and all drivers
for my computer

However, a few days later, i could not get some programs
to work after installing them(ie. Rainbow six 3 crashes
and shows error messages only seconds after starting the
program). And some programs will crash and require me to
re-install them (ie. divx player, msn messenger) Also,
windows update wont install certain updates. It will
freeze and take up most of my cpu. About every 4
startups, chkdsk says it needs to check my hard drive,
and usually finds many corrupt files. The process repeats
itself every few days.

Is this a software problem that can be fixed by
formatting my drive again? Or is my hard disk damaged? I
can not find any support articles about corrupt files
repeatedly showing up on a hard disk every day. If anyone
can tell me what the source of the problem is, or where i
can find help it would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[cjobes]

This sounds very much like your hard drive is about to give up. I would
backup everything important, buy a new hard drive and reinstall. Don't wait
too long with this.

 

[Hilary Karp]

Jay, download a drive diagnostic utility from the web site for the
manufacturer of the hard drive. This will create a bootable floppy.
Run the diagnostics to see if the drive is failing.

Your problems could be do to a whole range of things. It could be some
software that is messing things up. The best way to go about this, if
the drive is ok is to load software programs one at a time and run them
for awhile to see if any problems arise, then add another, etc.

Also you could try troubleshooting your current system using msconfig.
Here are some links:'

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316434