Question : Desktop crash

I've recently experienced a strange succession of events on this Dell Optiplex 745 small form factor running Windows XP (and out of warranty since February). It started one day, when upon rebooting, I got a corrupted system file error: "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: windows\system32\config\system

Well, i thought... I then restored an Acronis image off a similar system, and everything went fine, for about two weeks when I got a similar crash (same exact error). That's an odd "coincidence"...

Rebuilt again in the same fashion, and three weeks later, the HDD dies (the clunk - clunk - clunk was pretty telling). Well, i said that that must have been the root of the problem (although still an odd coincidence).

Replaced the hard disk, restored image, and two weeks later another crash, and this time Windows is not booting at all (black screen).

To add another symptom to the mix, on occasion, when I insert a USB cable (not even the actual device) in the front of the computer, the DVI output goes out and I get a black screen (no output) even if I reboot. Removing the USB cable fixes the problem (or it did, so far), and again, inserting it gingerly (or into the back ports) may not cause this to happen.

I've pretty much given up on this computer, but I'd still be curious as to what the problem could be. Any ideas? Thanks a lot!

Answer : Desktop crash

Though I don't like the way this page is layed out, the banner and icons are nice (though I would prefer more colors, too):
http://galileo.rice.edu/lib/catalog.html

This is an interesting layout because they used beautiful photos - no icons (or eyecons)
http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw_united_states/

This one shows how people are moving away from icons to larger images to designate categories:
http://needtoknow.nas.edu/

I think this site has some cool organization though their graphics:
http://www.speaknowforkids.org/

I like this banner but I don't like the rest of the page:
http://www.nsta.org/

In general, many sites are changing their layouts to be more "blog" like and friendlier. For interesting website designs you can refer to sites such as the webby awards (www.webbyawards.com) though many times they choose sites that use lots of flash and that is not good for all websites (probably not even good for most sites)

DeeDee