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Re: All attached printers stopped working
Please run the HDD diagnostic tool that corresponds to your hard drive, better safe than sorry. Bad clusters are not supposed to happen at all. Go to the device manager (start => run => devmgmt.msc) and expand disk drives to find the model of your drive then google with that model to find the brand. Burn the DOS bootable CD and run the long/extended test.
For the third time, are your printers local (attached to your computer) or shared (attached to another computer of the network) ?
You can use the system file checker or do a repair install to repair Windows and keep all your data and settings without reinstalling but you'll need an XP SP3 CD. Google with "slipstream SP3" to learn how you can create one.
Go to start => run and type sfc /scannow (mind the space after sfc). Don't do anything while it is running (should take 30 minutes at max). If it asks for the XP CD insert your newly created XP SP3 CD. It may sometimes ask for an XP pro CD on an XP Home installation. Just click retry, it'll copy the file anyway but it can be tedious.
If you want to go the repair install route backup the content of your my documents folder and the files that are on the desktop to stay on the safe side. Nothing wrong should happen to them but as I said before better safe than sorry.
Enter the BIOS at startup (repeatedly press del or look for some "press xx to enter setup" message) and change the boot order priority to CD-rom first. Press enter when prompted to boot from the XP CD. Press enter to "setup windows now", accept the licence agreement, select your windows installation and press 'R' to "repair the selected installation".
You may need to reinstall one program or the other if they stop working (shouldn't happen but...) but all your files and settings will be untouched.
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