Boot problem

[cranborile]

I have a P4 3GHz procesor (Prescott)
Asus P4S800-MX SE MOBO
1G DDR 400 RAM
Western Digital 80G HDD
Pioneer 110 DVD Burner

I am running XP Home OEM - SP2

I recently started getting this message when i boot my system:
"Windows/System32/Config/System file missing or corrupt"
I restart my pc and sometimes it will boot to windows sometimes not.
after a while it wont boot at all. I have the problem even when i do a
clean install of XP. I have used Western Digital "Data Lifegaurd" and
checked for errors (none) reset my HDD back to zero's and reformatted.
Still the problem pops up again. I have thouroughly tested my ram and
it has passed all tests. I have loaded XP from a different OEM installation
disk and still no change. I have tried installing from two different DVD & CD
drives to no avail. The problem is occuring with or without any programs
added to the OS. All my cables have been checked and are seated properly
as is the processor. My case is well ventilated and heat is not a problem.
I do understand that this error is caused by a corrupted registry but a clean
install should fix the problem.
I would be greatfull for any help with this one.
Thank you :-?

[pcnut]

Hi cranborile, from the info that you have posted it sounds like your the victum of a slowly dying hard drive despite the results of the hard drive diagnostic software.  Usaully a reinstall  of the OS would most certainly fix this issue....if I were you I would go ahead and buy myself a new hard drive or better yet if you an have  an old drive lying around or you have friend that would lone you one that would allow you to diagnose your problem to see if the drive is truly gone bad.

Good Luck!

[GX1_Man]

Are you formatting the drive as NTFS?

[cranborile]

Are you formatting the drive as NTFS?

Allways!!!