Format and Fresh Install - Printable Version

Hi everyone, just wondering if you could give me some help with this..

The other day i decided it was about time I formatted and did a fresh install of my XP Pro as there was alot of unwanted programs etc and i felt it could do with a cleanup as its been a long time since the last one.
I then backed up everything i needed to and proceeded to format.
The computer had 2 partitions created by its previous owner that i had just got used to. I wanted to get rid of them and combine to one.
I read that i had to boot from my windows cd so i went to do that and found that my xp pro disk would not boot from disk (Err. No operating system found). Tihs was a pain and i thought i was stuffed. However i remembered a brand new copy still in the packet we had of XP Home including SP2. So i decided i would have to settle for that.
To cut it short all went smooth with formatting and reinstallation of important programs but within a day it was experiencing completely random freezes. and i am talking about freezes so bad that ctrl alt del doesnt even respond and the only thing i could do was hold power button.
This started getting annoying and i figured i couldnt put up with this and knew it would probably happen to me during some important school assignment or something. I hadnt finished reinstalling everything so i decided something must of gone wrong and came to the conclusion it would be easier and less stressful to start over and format and fresh install xp home again.
I did all this fine and was back to a fresh copy and empty harddrive. All of a sudden i began experiencing the lockup freezes again. I knew it wasnt a bad program i had installed as all i had at this stage was the operating system and MS Office 2000.
So now i have no idea what to do. I have installed a few crucial programs for now to get me by until i work out what i can do.

Sorry this is so long but if anyone can help me out with this problem it would be great as this is getting fairly frustrating and i need to get back to my assignments (which was one of the reasons i wanted to format so my needed programs would run smoother).

Thanks for your help

Was windows xp previously installed on the hard drive and wot r the specs for ur comp?

nimicitorm, unfortunately i do not have other harddrive to try. I have plenty of them laying around but its a laptop so they are different.
And yes i opted for the full ntfs format both times.
I would assume all hardware would be fine as it has been working fine for close to a year before i decided it was time for a reinstall.
How do i start a scan disk? besides when it comes up when you dont shut down properly?

Any other ideas what it could be.

Oh and yes as i said in my previous post it has had xp on it running stable for over a year i just felt it was time for a clean up. Looks like i should have left it....lol.

i think u shud try it a format from a cd one more time. try and get hold of another windows xp cd, but a retail copy

Yet another reformat won't do anything. Next time, try being helpful.

@Dan: You can start a scan disk (called CHKDSK in WinXP btw) by opening a command window and running 'chkdsk'. Use 'chkdsk /?' for help.

Yea i didnt think a format would be worth it for a 3rd time either lol thats why i hadnt replyed yet.
Ok thanks i will start a scan disk now. Btw what am i looking for it to find? Errors on the drive? if so what can i do about it?

Thing is, in order to fix errors on the main Windows drive, you'll need to find out how to set it so CHKDSK runs during bootup, then reboot.

If you are having problems when you have formatted and installed Windows XP Home Edition, try doing that, then upgrading to Windows XP Professional. When you have booted up into Windows XP Home Edition normally, put in your Windows XP Professional disc, choose "Install Windows XP" and then follow the prompts.

Thanks for all your help however im still experiencing the problem.
I ran the chkdsk and it found a problem or two apparently and then run at startup so i assume it fixed it. but this hasnt made a difference. The freezes i am getting arent like normal with a program crashing. you cant ctrl+alt+del or anything like that. the mouse just stops and the computer is unresponsive until you are forced to turn it off.
I thought about installing home edition and then putting my professional back on over the top however when i tried it and put the pro disk in it said the version on the disk is older than the one installed and if i really wish to go back to that version i have to boot from that cd. which brings me back to my original problem of not being able to boot from the xp pro disk (refer to 1st post).
Thanks everyone for helping with this its getting very frustrating and i have already lost work and been stopped in the middle of things because of these random lock ups.
If anyone has any ideas at all please share.

Perhaps your computer overheats? If it is overheating, a great thing to do is to *drumroll* take off your case panels

!

If you want to try to put xp pro on top, try creating a sp2 integrated cd (slipstream sp2 into your xp pro) if it isnt already, it might make it not say that it is an older version.

I was just thinking that maybe it is an overheating issue. but its a laptop and its in the same place it always has been and i havent changed anything (hardware). Any ideas on what i could do to prevent this if its the reason. or determine whether it really is the reason.
Thanks
Oh and ill look into that slipstreaming, i have read about it once before.

To check your PC temperatures (and fan speeds and voltages), I regomend MBM5. Your laptop might not measures temperatures, or whether MBM might not know which value is which, but it is certainly worth a try. Australian mirror, choose MBM5370.exe, near the bottom. md5:11545866c07dbe796036e3bb8206a453a.

To lower your temperatures for a laptop, you can try proping it up with a few rubbers, I have never tried it, it is just an idea I had. If you want, you can buy a laptop cooler

In My Computer do you only have the C Drive has a hard drive?

I am thinking fdisk the drive and recreate the partition as a whole and leave it as NTFS.

Check this for help: Matty's reply to URGENT: Computer messed.....