I have repeated problems where my bootup/startup on my desktop PC running
Windows XP Pro does not work.

I have gotten from hal.dll not found/corrupt errors, to other errors that I
had to fix by fixing my boot.ini etc...

The thing that bothers me is that I am getting these errors one after the
other in a matter of days, so I am beginnning to suspect that there is a
problem somewhere that is causing it - the motherboard going bad, disk going
bad ???

When I look at the disk drive letters after fixing the bootup problem, I've
noticed at least two or three times that the dirve letters have been
changed. I don't know why!!!

I have had this PC now for about 3 years and uses an MSI 865GM3-LS
Motherboard.

Regards,

TedM

I would start by running the manufacturer's own diagnostic test on the
hard drive. You can download the required file from their website
support area. There are downloads for creating either a bootable floppy
or bootable cd. The test runs within it's own operating system written
to RAM, so it will run regardless of how 'poorly' your hard drive may
be.
Obviously you will need to ascertain the make of hard drive as the test
won't run reliably on other makes.