Getting BSOD when trying to reformat

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2[H]4U
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Jan 17, 2004
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Somehow the computer got corrupted and I get a message saying so and so about not finding "C:\WINDOWS\System\"

I tried recovery console and I tried reformatting (this is XP by the way). Both of them give me a BSOD that has REGISTRY_ERROR written on it. This also happens when trying to start in safe mode.

WTF? :(
 
run memtest for 24 hours. Chances are that's where the errors are coming from.

If it's not that, look at the HD being bad or possibly a bad HD cable.
 
Alright UPDATE:

I ran memtest for 24 hours, 0 errors.

I decided to boot with a Win98 bootdisk and rank FDISK to clear out all partitions.

Windows XP installed fine, and all was good, until I restarted the computer after running Windows Update. I now can't get past the Windows boot logo - the computer restarts and goes into the selection screen in which I can select "Safe Mode, Last Known Good Configuration, etc." Even selecting Safe Mode crashes and restarts before booting into Windows.

So, as you may imagine, I'm quite frustrated. Any help would be strongly appreciated.

P.S. This started happening ever since we had a huge thunderstorm in the area. Since this computer was connected to a cheap-o Belkin powerstrip, could a power surge cause a computer to act like this? My main computer is connected to a quality surge protector and all is fine.
 
are the RAM voltages and timings set manually (i.e nothing left to auto, and voltage set at the RAM's maximum spec)?

you could very well be right about that HD cable though.
 
I would put all settings to stock if you've toyed with that. Also, you may want to look to see if your HDD manufacturer has a type of diagnostic tool you can download to run on the HDD to eliminate that as a possible source of corruption.
 
I would run a diskcheck and/or use a HDD diagnostic tool. It is pretty rare for those cables to go bad, but you might try replacing the data cable. Also, it is possible that a power surge could have done some damage to the motherboard.
 
Ldogg1981 said:
I would run a diskcheck and/or use a HDD diagnostic tool. It is pretty rare for those cables to go bad, but you might try replacing the data cable. Also, it is possible that a power surge could have done some damage to the motherboard.
Click to expand...

yeah, you do that cause it sounds like a problem with the HD...
 
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