corrupt this,corrupt that.Is there an end to that?

[ArabGuy]

I KNOW THIS POST LOOKS LONG BUT I MADE IT AS INTERSETING AS POSSIBLE SO PLEASE READ IT..PLZ!
As you may know, people do sometimes get corrupted files every now and then, sadly i get corrupted files everyday, every hour, and god knows, maybe every minute.
So I Need your help ppl, your expert opinion on this. Ill try to make this as small as possible.
In a nutshell My problem is :ANY Data i put on my pc gets corrupted.
...In paragraphs ...hehehe you thought i was gonna let u go with the "nutshell" thing huh?....
Everything, EXCLUDING MOVIE FILES, that ive been downloading for the past year or so gets corrupted. and around 6 months ago I found out that when i move data around (like installing games, moving big files from my old computer to this computer) they ALSO got corrupted. I didnt know about the 2nd part because i never bothered to actually install any games to make sure they work. Now you're thinking ya his problem is simple ITS A VIRUS!. well Im just a little bit more than rookie in computers so i did my part before coming here.
No its not a virus, so far i formated about 8 times or so. You may think that its my windows thats causing this problem, and i can assure you that ive used at least 3 different Operating systems and I still got corrupted files. You may start thinking that its got to do with some software im using like a download manager or internet optimizer and i can tell u that I use the explorer download manager, and nothing else, becides how could those affect my game installation? they dont get downloaded from the internet but the data comes from my cd-rom or dvd-rom. Now you gotta be thinking that My harddrive is all messed up. well I tried my other hard drive from my old pc, i still have the same problem. Same thing goes for the RAM, I got my old pc's ram and installed it, and that didnt work either. Someone suggested that it maybe a videocard ram issue, i dont see how that could be but i tried another videocard and YEP, doesnt work either. I tried updating my bios, and i didnt c no improvments whatsoever.
Its kinda funny when i go into shops telling them what my problem is and them thinking that i was sent by their boss to see if they knew anything about computers.  
But no, im not testing no one here, this is a real problem that i cant seem to figure out, and i went on like 5 different computer help sites and many...and i mean many ppl,shops,technicians who either didnt have time for my pc or didnt wanna fix it or most likly didnt know what the heck is wrong with it
Now there is a "Weirder" part to my problem. the person who i built my computer at really wanted to help me. I had a warranty on this computer and He was putting it to use. He changed the ram and hard drive for me and he also SHOWED ME that when he plugs in his connection to the interenet (T1 connection) he downloaded 4 files ranging from 200 to 500 MB, and they worked fine, they extracted fine. After that he really couldnt help me alot more cuz he saw nothing wrong with it. Now I stopped going to this guy BEFORE my "installing corruption" happend. I never bothered to go to him cuz my warranty was over.
So i am basically in ur hands guys. i cant afford to buy a new computer and i am sure there is a way to solve this
So just to make sure u got everything right:
1)Any data that is copied onto my hdd gets corrupted
2)Changed many things in it and that didnt work
3)I can assure u, there is no virus on my hdd
4)I do not believe there are programs that are messing up my files
5)It is most likly a hardware issue, but WHICH
PC:
intel p4 2.4GHz
512 DDR RAM
DVD-ROM
CDRW
Ati Radeon 9000pro 128mb ddr ram
ECS P4VXASD2+ Motherboard
SoundBlaster5.1 gamer
If I missed anyting ask and ill answer
Please Respond to this post, dont just look and go on to another one. give ur opinion or whatever u have to say about this. Anything can fix my problem

[merlin_2]

hard drive ........have you run disk check....scandisk.....its possible that you have a boot sector virus.......try another brand new hard drive.....

[ArabGuy]

I did say i tried another harddrive.
That didnt work
becides i usually Install operating systems and download stuff right away..so there is no chance of things crashing or programs messing up my harddrive
Im pretty sure that it is not the hard-drive. Dont u think using my older pc's hard drive is good enough? if u think that getting a brand new harddrive will solve this, then plz reply

[merlin_2]

try a scan ......>http://housecall.trendmicro.com/   and disable the system restore feature..  i reason i said try a new hard drive because if the hard drive ......had bad sectors/blocks or boot sector...this would cause corupt files< do any of the hard drives clonk or  make usual nosies> also...if you have also used a floppy boot disk or ..it also may contain a  bootsector ....virus...try the above first.....and re-check your software by getting the anti-virus program to scan all disks.....dvd/cd/fd// before loaded them....

[Jacko_the_Wacko]

You probably have a boot sector virus.

But I can't help you.  

Try to look on the internet for a good online hard-drive scan. I think merlin posted one in this topic.

Jacko

[Neil]

What percisely do you mean by corrupted? In what way do they not work?

[ArabGuy]

K well its nice to see ppl actually thinking about my problem here
k first off lets get the main topic straightened out. I have 2 computers, i have the problem with the new one, NOT the old one. I download fine on the old one, infact all my updates, game demos and other files are downloaded on my old pc and then transfered to here through a network (usually i have to transfer them more than once cuz the first time i transfer the files onto this pc the files are most likly currupted). I am still going to try the website u sent me and ill post the results.

2nd thing..I have a virus scanner (as i said in the begining   ) and i cant find no boot sector virus. but ill still do the online scan thing.

3d thing for Niel and everyone else who is still confused about how the files get corrupted. Lets say we have a zip file with 10 files in it. lets say i extract the files and file #3 is corrupt. I download that same file again and i try to extract the 10 files. NOW its file #7 that is corrupt, #3 extracts fine!. its not always the same file that gets corrupt. it happens randomly out of nowhere[/u]. So when try to install a game for example, sometimes the game says there is a sound file corrupt, then the 2nd time i install it says there is a Texture file corrupt, and so on

[ArabGuy]

BTW, if i formated my hard drive, doesnt that get rid of the virus? cuz i said in my first post that i formated like 8 times

[ArabGuy]

K I scanned and did not find any viruses on the housecall website.

[dl65]

ArabGuy.......LOL......your post is soooooo funny.
First , please state your o/s ....... Then please enlighten us as to which anti virus program you have installed and presumably working on the pc in question.
Now then.......perhaps you would be so kind as to define the "Corupted Files " phrase you keep using . Please provide an example for us ......

dl65  

[ArabGuy]

dl65, thank u for the comment. I know ppl dont like to read and i know that my post was gonna be long so i made it as interesting as possible.
So back to business. I am currently running windows xp Pro. I Also tried my problem on windows 95, 98 SE, WinME, Win2000.. non of them work, so win xp is not gonna be any better

My Antivirus Is currently (and the only one i ever used) norton antivirus 2003

I just scanned also using a website a person posted it 20 mins ago (no virus found)

My corrupted files i kinda explained the post above and im pretty sure u missed it but here it is again

3d thing for Niel and everyone else who is still confused about how the files get corrupted. Lets say we have a zip file with 10 files in it. lets say i extract the files and file #3 is corrupt. I download that same file again and i try to extract the 10 files. NOW its file #7 that is corrupt, #3 extracts fine!. its not always the same file that gets corrupt. it happens randomly out of nowhere[/u]. So when try to install a game for example, sometimes the game says there is a sound file corrupt, then the 2nd time i install it says there is a Texture file corrupt, and so on

So basically all types of data (from exe to rar to bik to rom to iso to etc. etc.) EXCEPT movie files (avi, mpeg, mpg, etc) gets corrupted (as in windows cant open it, as in BIG RED X SIGN lol ,).

Now im not sure why movie files do not get corrupted, but i think they do in a way but Media players just can bypass the corrupted info and replace it with something else. im not sure im not that much of an expert to say anything.

[dl65]

ArabGuy...So if I understand you........its only files which you unzip which may become "damaged".........
What program do you use to unzip these files ?

"EXCEPT movie files (avi, mpeg, mpg, etc) gets corrupted (as in windows cant open it, as in BIG RED X SIGN lol ,). "  What do you mean a big red X ? Dont you have Sun Systems java installed ?
WMP........will open those AVI files  

Re your Norton 2003 AV ..........what is the subscription renewal date displayed ?

let us know

dl65  

[ArabGuy]

Basically ur right, mostly they r zip files (because most files are now zipped) i use winrar and winzip
what i meant about the red big x sign is the error message where it says something like "The installation file you are trying to run is either damaged or corrupt, please optain another copy"

also u know how in winrar if there is a corrupt file it will tell u what file it is and so on, thats also part of "the big red x"

i just used that as an expression..

[ArabGuy]

Oh and about the nav, the subscribtion is not old, i just formated a couple of days ago and i installed nav when i installed windows

[dl65]

ArabGuy......So whats the subscription date on your Norton AV......?

dl65