I keep forgetting the Microsoft rotation where every other release was a kludge. Microsoft Millenium, Microsoft Vista, then......? Where are we in the cycle? What is the new Windows 2000?
First: UltimateBootCD.com. Run some of the diagnostics on it like memtest, mprime, drive tests. The first 2 should be run for 24 hours minimum. I've had brand new hardware fail some of these. I run these periodically to make sure my existing hardware is still behaving. Second, Truly Wiping A Hard Disk: If you know a little linux and have a live CD, boot it, open a shell and run: sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1024k And wait a long time for the first disk to be low leveled. Change "sda" to "sdb" for the second disk, and so on. Once erased, you cannot get anything back. If your disk has special restore partitions and the like from over zealous manufacturers, that could cause you some problems. If you have retail windoze install discs, it shouldn't be an issue. A couple of the disk test utilities on UBCD also have a drive wipe options. Not sure what they are, but I remember seeing them when exploring UBCD. Quick edit warning: If you select the wrong disk to erase, YOUR DATA WILL BE GONE FOREVER, so be careful. If you have multiple disks and are unsure, open up your case and unplug every disk with data you want to keep.
Find a utility to do a Low Level Format (LLF). As I understand, simply reformatting doesn't overwrite the boot sector. Suggest always doing LLF if the OS is changed or if the drive is not new and you're not sure what OS is/was on it.... includes the change from 32-bit to 64-bit of same OS.
Thought I'd close the thread. Problem fixed. Malwarebytes or Kaspersky delivered an update which was totally incompatible with the other product. Performed clean install > partitioned > removed Malwarebytes......Everything is now fine. Computer running perfectly. Thanks for the input, guys. Much appreciated.
Such software usually won't allow you to wipe/reformat the drive from which the OS is currently running... likely to keep user from inadvertently hosing himself. You'll almost aways have to install drive you wish to wipe/reformat as a 2nd drive. Or, run the utility from a USB or optic drive.... such as DBAN. If you troubleshoot your own stuff... and use extensive backups/images, a Low Level Format utility is a valuable one to have.
Windows 7 is very very old system, by the date of my post is already like 10 years old, only think about that once again - 10 years old anyway. You better go with somethin modern like Windows 10 1903 and stick with it really and you will be fine.