>> are you by chance being bitten by Windows XP's System Restore
>> (mal)function?

> Thanks for the idea Nando. Tried disabling system restore, but
> no luck.

Since you are using a P4 and XP - any chance the P4 is a Xeon
with Hyperthreading turned on? (Or is it a dual CPU system?)

Marco Lauria and I have been trying to track down a go-slow
problem - it seems unrelated to yours, but without knowing
the full details of your system I thought it worth asking.

--
Geoff Worboys
Telesis Computing