I'm running a Win XP machine. Yesterday I booted it up to find that
the video output was suddenly out of sync with the monitor so I
couldn't get anything up on screen. I decided to restore to the 'last
known good configuration' which seemed to work, although random
applications weren't working after I booted into windows and text was
missing from filenames, the start menu etc..

I booted from the install cd and chose a repair install which finished
without any errors. Upon rebooting I now intermittently either get an
error message saying \windows\system is missing or corrupt, or windows
just reboots itself just after the black screen with the scrolling
windows logo appears.

As my setup hasn't changed, hardware wise, and I haven't installed any
software (that I know of - the PC has a DSL connection), I decided to
check the hard disk out for errors using Seagate's SeaTools software -
it's a Seagate drive.

The physical disk tests came up as green, however the logical disk
test for both partitions came up as red. I emailed Seagate and they
think that it's down to a worm.

Has anyone any suggestions as to what I can try to fix this or clean
this up? Or perhaps can shed some light as to what else it could be?

As an aside, another user on here recently posted a question along the
same lines - just on a Windows 2000 machine. Could this be related?

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Request for Question Clarification by aceresearcher-ga on 08 Jul 2004 08:49 PDT

Greetings, noggywoggy!

Are you able to boot into Windows successfully at this point?

Regards,

aceresearcher

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Clarification of Question by noggywoggy-ga on 08 Jul 2004 08:54 PDT

Hi ace!

Unfortunately not - it's decided it's going to let me get as far as
the 'loading settings...' bit and continues to restart endlessly.

Noggy

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Clarification of Question by noggywoggy-ga on 08 Jul 2004 08:56 PDT

Actually, it doesn't even get that far. Coming up with the
missing/corrupt error message as mentioned in the paragraphs above.

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Request for Question Clarification by aceresearcher-ga on 08 Jul 2004 09:08 PDT

Can you try booting into "Safe Mode" from your install disks?

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Clarification of Question by noggywoggy-ga on 08 Jul 2004 10:27 PDT

I don't believe windows xp has this functionality

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Request for Question Clarification by aceresearcher-ga on 08 Jul 2004 11:19 PDT

From Symantec's "Starting your computer in Safe mode" Support page:

WINDOWS XP

To use the F8 method
--------------------
Use this method only if Windows XP is the only operating system
installed on your computer.

Start Windows, or if it is running, shut Windows down, and then turn
off the computer. Restart the computer. The computer begins processing
a set of instructions known as the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS).
What is displayed depends on the BIOS manufacturer. Some computers
display a progress bar that refers to the word BIOS, while others may
not display any indication that this process is happening.

As soon as the BIOS has finished loading, begin tapping the F8 key on
your keyboard. Continue to do so until the Windows Advanced Options
menu appears. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers
display a "keyboard error" message. To resolve this, restart the
computer and try again.

Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, scroll to and select the Safe
mode menu item, and then press Enter.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2001052409420406

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Clarification of Question by noggywoggy-ga on 09 Jul 2004 02:08 PDT

Sorry, yes I tried this. Just you mentioned booting from the install
disks into safe mode. Which I believe can't be done. The F8 method
doesn't work.

do you use any file sharing networks such as kazaa? your logical
drives failing seem to be an effect of the problem not the cause of
the problem... to me it sounds like a virius... did you try a virius
scan? norton 2004 with all the updates is good.  anyways the only way
your gonna fix the problem is by doing a clean install... make sure it
formats your main partition and installs from scratch.  if you dont
want to format and start from scratch then try the following:   create
anti virius boot disks on another computer using an updated version of
norton anti virius 2004/2005 and use the disks to run a virius check.
you can also use a 3rd party partition editor that boots itself off
the disk,,, i once had a similar problem and use the partition editing
software from the red hat linux 7 cd's and editing the disks volume
information and applying the changes without doing a format... anyways
it sounds like a virius to me and you should atleast try to clean it.
if everything fails then dust your partitions using fdisk and start
from scratch... if you want instructions on how to do so then ask...
make sure you save important info before erasing anything

Mind if I just ask....

Your monitor type: is it CRT or TFT/LCD.

The sync problem: does this occur immediately on starting the PC. By
this I mean can you see the PST screen and the system summary screen
before windows starts to load, and then you get the sync problem once
windows has loaded. If this starts to happen BEFORE windwos has
actually begun loading, then you should look for a hardware cause (ie
monitor, dislodged cable, dodgy GFx card.)

If this only occurs once windows starts to load, then can I second
Aceresearcher's suggestion of booting to Safe mode via F8; I know you
said it didn't work, but do you mean you do not get the option to boot
into safe mode by pressing f8, or do you mean you get the option to
boot into safe mode but that Windows fails to load up....

If windows is failing to load into safe mode, then I hope you have
your windows XP CD handy, because your next option is to boot from the
XP CD iteslf - to do this you may need to enter into the Bios
configuration screens to adjust the boot order settings to allow the
system to boot from CD before attempting to boot from the hard drive.
By doing this, you can then use the Windows XP CD to try and repair
your existing XP install on the hard-drive, which will then hopefully
let you get back in so as to be able to scan your system for the
suspected virus/worm - you might want to try that from safe mode with
networking support IF you can access the internet in safe mode via
your DSL connection this way so you can make use of an on-line scan
such as Symantec or McAfee.

A couple of thoughts anyway.