Software or hardware?
Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop 1.6GHz with XP Pro 90 day warranty Within several weeks the system suddenly began shutting down on it?s own for no apparent reason and I recieved file errors

Stop:C0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file):\systemroot|system32\cofig\software or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.
<Windows root>\system 32\ntos krnl.exe
<Windows root>\system 32\hal.dll
KRNL Stack In Page Error
System 32 NT OS KRNL
DISK READ ERROR

I had a local service tech look at it and he reloaded windows $140 (wow)

Within two weeks same problem
He checked again and now new harddrive $105 ... explained that intermitant harddrive problem ... shutting down ... upon reboot gave file errors

This seemed to fix problem for 3 months ... no errors ... no shutdowns ... until today

I recieved disk read error and upon reboot file errors ... now all is lost ... reload XP myself following the Great tutorials and forum advise in these postings

Long winded roundabout way to current problem ... with no exageration ... I made 10 to 15 attempts to reload XP ... each time during these attempts about half way into it ... either while formating the partition or while setup copied files, the computer shut down with a blue screen of death ... something like fatal error ... check hardware ... this is for your own good ...

I finally succeded and loaded XP ... however now no audio device is detected ... I cannot connect to internet ... graphics seem incorrect ...

Could this be an integrated motherboard problem ... causing harddrive failures ... in turn causing file errors ... which initially led me to believe it was a software problem

and my problem now ... am i simply missing drivers or still a hardware problem? Would I not have reloaded the drivers during XP re-install?

Hi Aallpphh,

Welcome to the PCHF, I have had a look around about the error code yo came up with and it could be your Hard Drive. Please let us know the make and model so I can look for some diagnostic software for it.
Unfortunatley the error could also be caused by faulty memory, try the memtest here and let us now how you get on
http://www.memtest86.com/#download0.

I ran the Memtest86 - A Stand-alone Memory Diagnostic for 5 hours or so and recieved no errors I have to take out the hard drive to see the make and model. The company that replaced it for me does not know without looking at it. Thanks for your help.

Ok then, when you find out, let us know and we'll be able to guide you on the tests.

The hard drive is a Toshiba Disk Drive MK4026GAX HDD2193 C ZK01 T 40gb (LBA 78,140, 160Sectors)

I reloaded windows and it worked for 3 days...I was using it today and recieved a blue screen...when it tried to reboot I recieved an error "Read Failure On Internal Hard Drive" It would not boot... so I shut it down and restarted and recieved the error "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \Windows\System32\config\system....insert original setup disk and select "r" ... This is a 3 month old hard drive ... could it be bad? Two harddrives in 7 months? Is something else causing problems? I can only start over and reload XP to try to run hard drive tests

Hi Aallpphh,

This does unfortunately sound like a hard drive problem, if it is only 3 months old you should contact the supplier ASAP and report is under the warranty.
There is a diagnostic utility here which you might try to give you a better idea of wheather it is the hard drive that is faulty.
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t...ngdgmn.0&ct=DL