I have recently tried to install Matlab which caused my computer to crash, on reboot it locked me out of my desktop (all desktop icons were hidden) and crtl+alt+del was not allowed. so i wiped OS drive.

I formatted my c drive twice now and put on fresh installs of xp pro sp2 (same copy as what i have been using before (with no problems)), it is now saying on 90% of installs files are corrupt, if its not one thing its another like office not installing, also ALOT of my files to be un-rarered are also failing. i have checked out NSIS problems and cleared cache. any ideas on what to do next?

What version of the Microsoft Installer do you have? What errors are you getting?

You'll have to forgive me, but I'm not familiar with the definition of "un-rarered."

Life's more painless for the brainless.

... "Jennifer SUMN" I think ellis1884 uses the term unrar to extract files from within compressed "rar" files (I use the term too)

... "ellis1884" I'd "zap" the partitions first (Fdisk) create 'em then format; be careful as NOT to zap needed partitions.

... used method in the past allowing faultless install.

... also make sure the XP cd is clean.

... ok ya!

Grrrr
wat do I know?
... got brain freeze

May need to clean more than the CD's. Go to local computer Store & pickup a CD/DVD Laser Lens Cleaning Kit.

Dirty Laser Lens will cause File corruption. More likely the Lens when files from several CD's exhibit the same symptoms.

There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

Ide controller, ide cable, hard drive, cdrom, memory, processor, powersupply. well almost any hardware issue. Run diag suite.

"Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10