Photoshop 7.0 "error is unrecoverable" installation message

I had to re-install the operating system (Windows XP)on my computer. The re-installing of Photoshop 7.0 was successful, according to the message at the end of the process, but when I launch the software it gets most of the way through the loading process but then a message appears that reads "unable to continue because of hardware or system error. Sorry, but this error is unrecoverable". No code or any other identifying reference number. Just a "quit" botton.

I've run all of the Windows and disk diagnostics that Microsoft and Norton Utilities have (no issues) and also uninstalled and reinstalled Photoshop several times.

I still get the error message. As a check, I installed Photoshop on another computer I have just to see if there's a problem with the disk and that worked fine. It also ran on this computer before I had to re-install Windows XP (that was because of an issue with Norton Utilities).

Any help that anyone can provide would be most appreciated. I'm stuck!!

Thank you.

"unable to continue because of hardware or system error..."

....usually does mean you've got, erm, a hardware or system error.

Could something have got wrong during the OS reinstall?

It could be bad RAM (if you've got more than one stick, try swopping them out one at a time.)

Have you tried running checkdisk on your HD?

Best of luck with it.

PS: when you get it up and running agsin, don't forget to download the 7.0.1 update.

Thank you. I have been able to track the problem down and thought I'd post the result in case someone else has a similar issue.

The "erm" aside, I'd already run checkdisk, scandisk, and a bunch of other diagnostics. Photosho's very general "system error" wasn't much help.

Turns out that a single one of the large number of fonts was corrupted. Apparently when Photoshop loads it tests all available fonts. As soon as I figured out which font it was and deleted it the problem disappeared.

Thank you for the suggestions.