I think there's something wrong with the CD drive itself, not the PSU:

1. The early problems were ONLY when using the CD drive.
2. When you did the new install things got a lot worse, system...

I do think you'd be better with Disk spanning, you might look into JBOD raid before you recompile the array. You might fall in love.

I'm not sure an OS reinstall will resolve it, but it's probably your best bet. I hang at that point in the set up is an issue with the array itself (either the disks, configuration, or controller) so...

We really should stay on topic to fix the problem, not convince him to get rid of RAID, most people who use RAID don't need it.

On that note if you're open to the possibility of re-installing your...

There are other non windows diagnostic tools. Try the manufacturers disk tools (on their website, usually not hard to find) and just google "disk daignostic tools".

sounds like it might be a hardware problem, or BIOS. if there's a newer version of your BIOS use them.

The other thought is that it's an issue with one of the drives and it's having a hard time...

How much Memory do you have and how old is the computer? If you have 256mb of ram in a computer that's had time to build up junk even the recomended page file size might not be enough.

Go to the manufacturers site and download all the system drivers (for XP, not 98) and install Xp SP3, as well as any additional updates that might be needed. Hopefully this will resolve the problem.

When you installed XP you either left the current file system intact or did a system "upgrade" instead of a clean install. Essentially you installed windows XP without deleting any of the old...

I don't think he's tried to delete it, just asking if it's safe to delete first.

It's probably some kind of back-up file from the program you used to do the restoration, so google the file name...

There are two options. You can download a copy from a torrent site, to the best of my knowledge (and what I've read of the EULA) there's nothing illegal about this if you use a valid product key that...

A desktop folder shouldn't be system critical. view the contents of the folder (from safemode wouldn't be a bad idea if you're worried it's a virus) if it looks like junk move it to the recycle bin,...

Just because something is free doesn't mean it's actually legal freeware. Most illegal hacked software is distributed on the web free of cost.

I'm not judging, I use it, I just want to make sure...

There are CD bootable versions of XP available, but their legality is questionable at best, but google it if you're interested.

You can use a CD bootable Linux distrobution as salim suggested...

Most comp[lex software wont install in safemode. Uninstall AVG from safemode and restart. If it goes to your desktop you know that was the problem and you can reinstall (or install a different...