WinXP

I'm running XP Home on a Gateway P3, 450mhz. Recently, after shutting down the PC the normal way (start, turn off computer) when i go back to the PC and turn it on, it runs through the "file checking" process. This is the process that runs when windows is/was shut down improperly, like if you just push the off button. Any ideas as to way this is happening. Of course (murphy's law) it doesn't happen all the time, but seems to be happening more often.

 

have you tried looking in your event viewer

control panel--administrative tools--event viewer

 

Turn off auotmatically restart and see if you are getting stop errors on shutdown/reboot.

Right Click My Computer > Promperties > Advanced > Startup And Recovery Settings > Uncheck Automatically Restart under the System Failure section.

Tsk, Tsk, I also know you are on fat32

NTFS is superior, unless you have a reason to use fat32.

 

Thanks, I unchecked the Auto Restart as you suggested. When I reformatted my hard drive and installed XP, it asked about FAT32. Since I wasn't sure about it, I followed the instructions. My system was originally FAT32. Why is the other better? If it is so much better, would it be wise to reformat again not using FAT32?

 

agreed with adraynlyne NTFS is better you can convert without having to reformat look here
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307881

btw did you check your event viewer

 

NTFS is a more reliable and stable File System. It has better recovery too.

You can start over using NTFS if you like or you can convert to NTFS from fat32 by using a command line command.
start-->run type CMD
at the prompt type Convert C: /fs:NTFS

 

Ya, I looked at the event view, but to be honest I not sure what I am looking for.

I saw a lot of "info". There were "warnings" which varied from Norton (I ran a scandisk this moring), and found a virus and it also wasn't able to scan some files (Ad Destroyer - which I am unable to delete from my system. It gives me an error message of "Could not open INSTALL.LOG file"). Also was "Error" in various program that have locked up over the past few weeks.

What am I looking for?

 

you really want to be looking for errors at the time when you shut it down and it then scandisks on next boot
you can double click on an error for more info and also if you so wish follow the link for microsoft help and support

 

thanks for the info