Repaired Windows from the CD and it seems all is back to normal.
Sure must have been "confused"


Frank wrote:
> I thought I was pretty good but can sure use some help now.
> Windows XP Home SP2, two hard drives + other "stuff"
>
> A few days back my system crashed, on re-booting my hard drives were
> "empty". So I restored both drives using Acronis Trueimage from a
> backup only a couple of days old.(stand alone using a bootable CD)
>
> On rebooting, after a few minutes.... Crash.
> On rebooting, got the "NTLDR no found", checked the drive(s) and both
> were again "empty". I have repeated this process a few times and the
> same result.
>
> So, I restored the drives again using Acronis TI from a bootable CD,
> rebooted to a Win 98 floppy, ran ScanDisk and then Norton NDD. Booted
> from my XP CD, went into the Recovery Console and ran CHKDSK /R .... No
> problems found.
> Rebooted this time into Windows normally..... Crashed again.
>
> Any ideas ?

Using Acronis Disk Director I changed to 4k size and CONVERT still
failed and left me with FAT32 again.

But that is a secondary problem.
My system still crashes in Normal Windows boot BUT can run for days in
SAFE Mode with no problems.
When it crashes, on re-booting, my drives are "empty" and I restore
using TrueImage.

I have scanned my HD's many times after reloading - before running Windows.

I did find an entry in the Events log of a problem with the folder
\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs of a corrupted header and
following the KB, renamed the folder... no help

When running Normal Windows:
Windows Update always fails and shortly thereafter there will be a crash.
Sometimes there will be a crash if I just open Windows Explorer.

I am at a loss.
Would booting to SAFE w/Network prove anything?
While sure not at the top of my list, would installing Vista Home
Premium do anything for me? (I am fond of XP)