I have a relatively new self MADE computer that was doing well until a few weeks ago.
When I open run and type in cmd  it tells me cmd is not a valid Win32 application.  When I enter command prompt and ask it to ping something, it tels me C:\Windows\system32\ping.com is not a valid Win32 application.

But worst of all, when I open a folder with the intent of transferring a file to another folder, or to a USB drive, both folders crash.

I have System Mechanic 6 Pro and have run it though its most stringent tests, and it tell me there is nothing wrong with my hard drive, and that I have no spyware.  I reloaded Windows and I set all my services.msc to "on".  It does the same thing in safe mode.  

I would format this drive with System Mechanic  drive SCRUBBER, but I have things like Mailwasher and Outlook that I would like to  transfer to another computer, but even though they share a connection and see each other in the network neighborhood, it says is can't find the other computer when I try to use the  file and settings transfer  wizard.

I have a removable hard drive but the wizard won't find that, and it will find my 1 g USB SanDisk  but apparently that not big enough to hold Outlook, and anyway, the new Outlook on the other machine  won't import from a USB device.

I would like to move my movies, and both mail programs to another computer for saving.  Do I have to go out a buy a direct cable so I can do that?  

Ironically, it downloads movies and gets email and opens web pages just fine.

Sandy in FLThis may be a long shot, but I'm guessing if you have a custom built comp you probably have an extra harddrive laying AROUND. If possible, you could probably stick a different harddrive in as the master (at least 10gb in size) and install windows xp on there as a temp main os. Make sure to set the new drive to master and previous to slave. After the xp install (should go by in under 20 mins) you should be able to use your removable harddrive to save all the settings from the original harddrive. I'm new here, but I HOPE this helps!
- Thomas

EDIT: as an afterthought, have you attempted to do a system restore yet?Start..Run ...type in sfc /scannow...have your XP CD handy.I have already tried sfc /scannow.  I just forgot to mention it.  

I am not good at slaving hard drives, but I'll give it a try.

After reloading Windows, I have no more restore points.

sandy