I think I'd have to agree on this, just reformat. It's probably the quickest and easiest way to get the system usable again. Find a copy of WinXP (or any OS of your choice) and boot from CD. There...

True that, formatting is the sure fix. It's wiping the computing slate clean, but if he is going to save his data (which, having a 30gig MP3 database, I understand,) he will either need a second...

Here's a little bit from http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307881 that may help you a bit:

Converting a FAT or FAT32 Volume to NTFS

NOTE: Although the possibility of...

The problem you are having may very well be that you are using a FAT32 file system and some WindowsXP setups require an NTFS setup. I've had Windows pull this on me before when stepping up to XP Pro....

I'm assuming you are using a FAT32 file system and you do not wish to upgrade to an NTFS system. Is this correct?