XP has short term memory loss..

[Foxy_Foxy]

I recently had a second hand MESH computer from my father because mine had been fried due to a power surge, but I wanted all my things from my old hard drive. So I installed it no problem, it's listed in the BIOS screen. But what happens is that I try to boot it, and at the screen where windows is loading with the blue progress bar, it stops 3/4 up the bar after going round about 20 times, so I press reset, then I get the Safe mode, last known good config etc screen. If I press last known configuration windows boots up fine but start windows normally then the same happens again. Now I go in and change all the drivers etc, install a program or two and it works fine. Now I restart it and the same happens again. Windows hasn't got the programs I installed, the drivers have gone back to the old drivers and I have to do all this before I can use the PC. By the way if you're wondering why don't I use the hard drive in the MESH pc my dad had it wiped and destroyed... Don't ask. So I'm hoping someone will have had this problem before or have a vague ideo of the problem/solution.

Any help would be appreciated,
Shaun

P.S. Also doesn't let me hibernate or standby, and I've tried system restore, no dice.