Quote Originally Posted by TurcoLoco View Post
I agree with Jholland, something doesn't add up. Before you mentioned that this XP installation was an upgrade, from all the modifications and other indication, I could tell this system was upgraded to XP from an older flavor of Windows which 50% spells 'trouble'.

Even worse, this was an upgrade from already unstable and problematic Windows Me. I didn't get the part where you mentioned How did the NT factor into this? Was Windows NT installed after Me or was it an incorrect info and the system was upgraded from Me to XP?

If you enable viewing hidden files and system files under Folder Options > Advanced section, take a look at the root of the C and D drives to see where and how many Boot.ini file variations you see. You might see stuff like Boot.bak or OLD_Boot.ini which would indicate that there are multiple (yet hidden from XP) copies of the Boot.ini file, thus would confirm your statement abuot Boot file being modified previously.

If you open MS Config tool (Start > Run > msconfig > OK) and click on the BOOT.INI page and click the 'Check all Boot Paths' button to see if XP verfies the current path being valid or gives you an error.
Also make sure there are no funky option selected under the 'Advanced' button.
My guess is either this system got hit by a malware or the system/boot files were corrupted due...whatever. I think a fresh install of XP is overdue but for now you could try fixing it.

~TL
ok orginaly.... several years back, i had windows ME in my computer. i hated it. hubby and i went out and bought the upgrade. anything to get rid of ME. after a few months i had some problems and contacted microsoft. they talked me thru my first clean install and all seemed good. several months later my computer picked up websearch toolbar and i could not get rid of it at all... tried everything that was suggested to me. it was recommended the drive be reformated again to get rid of the regenerating strands of websearch. the reformating began, got all the way thru to 95% said there was a problem and stopped. after it stopped..poof the operating system of windows was gone. in order to use the upgrade and put back xp i needed an operating system. a friend burned a disk he had and when i did the drive again, it asked for a full version of windows to verify the operating system, i put in the disk that was made.. it went thru for about 30 secounds and asked for the xp disk again. i put it in and it finished formatting. after all the icons came up its realized even tho the drive is fat i see many many things labled NT... here are a few i copy and pasted for you to see...$NtUninstallKB896422_0$,,,$NtUninstallKB9254 86$. I have other features i was told only are in Nt like wireless networking wizard.