> I am a little reluctant to go to SP4.
SP4 works like a charm here, I'm quite happy with it. Actually, it was the
only SP for W2k that actually went on smoothly 100%, as in it went up,
rebooted, started and the system just kept on doing whatever it was doing.
Anyway. I recommend that you first check for errors and do a SMART test.
One of the problems could be a disk error. You can google for some of my
previous posts, which are quite comprehensive about how to test reliability
of a hard drive. There should be at least two posts about SMART testing and
steps to check your drive.
Should the drive come out clean, try checking with the event log about
messages related to file replacement (Windows File Protection). Also, try a
3rd party defragmenter as trial, I recommend (in this case only

to go
with DisKeeper because as I understand the MS defragmenter is a stripped
down version of this software. If you still encounter errors, it's not
related to the files, dlls, etc. and most likely hardware related or low
level system.
In that case, you can either go for reinstall or you could go to the
makers of diskeeper (Executive Software, if I'm not mistaking) and inch from
there, they are closer to the wiring of the OS than most people here, if not
all. I'd go for asking them.
However, since this is not a show stopper, you'll most likely get stuck
since these errors are random and rather rare. You can either live with it
or go for a reinstall of the OS.
In any case, do a comprehensive test of the disk. A failing disk is way
more important than any fragmentation issue.
--
Andrei "Ndi" Dobrin
Brainbench MVP
www.Brainbench.com