I recently reformatted/reinstalled Windows XP on my laptop and there was one error message when it was copying files for installation but I don't remember what it said. I think it had something to do with a Service Pack 2 update and debugging. But everything seemed to install fine. However, now when I turn on the laptop, instead of going to the XP splash screen where it has XP logo after it shows the BIOS, the laptop goes to a blank screen with a white progress bar on the bottom before it goes to the splash screen. It takes a couple minutes to go through this extra bar thing that appears. Does anyone know how to get rid of this? Also, when the XP setup was formatting the hard drive (NTFS full format) took 4 hours to format (it stayed at certain percentages for a long time). I've heard that it should only take 1-2 hours. I did check disk and it found some bad sectors but it should have fixed it. Should I just try to reinstall Windows XP again? Please help.

"Also, when the XP setup was formatting the hard drive (NTFS full format) took 4 hours to format (it stayed at certain percentages for a long time)." That's a very bad sign! It sounds like your hard drive is dying. Boot from the XP CD and select 'Repair' to run the Recovery Console. When you get to the c:\> prompt type: chkdsk /r A thorough test of every sector on the hard drive will be made. If you get a very few errors it's not a source for serious concern, but if you get more than a handfull, trash the drive. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!

I already ran check disk from Windows and it found like 3 bad clusters. Should I still run it again from the XP CD?

I think I may have figured out why it took a while to start up windows. When I looked at the start up properties of the advanced section of system properties, it shows two start up options: "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin... and there is also Windows XP Setup. I think I changed from the setup to the home edition (don't remember if I did). So now it doesn't show that bar thing but everytime I start up the laptop, there are two options for which OS I want to use and I pick the Home edition one. Does anyone know how I can get rid of the option to start up from the XP Setup? (This shows even when I don't have the CD in it). The boot file looks like this: [Boot Loader] Timeout=5 Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [Operating Systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Setup"