Registry Hive Failure

Trying to find a clear solution to a registry hive failure problem.
This applies to a lab setting. On a windows 2000 image running novell client, I make a few registry changes when the machines are prepared. I set AutoAdminLogon, DefaultPassword, ForceAutoLogon, in the Winlogon section of HKLocalMachine.
Everytime I make a new Image a handful of these machines have a SYSTEMced error, and I either have to re-image or repair the hive.
This problem has also happpened with a windowsXP image. This is an older lab (4th year of operation) running pentium 4 with 512 ram.
With lots of re-imaging the hard drives do take some abuse. Could the hive failure issue be linked to Hard Drives reaching the end of their life span, or has anyone else encountered an issue similar to this. Also, we have several different hardware configurations, and this build is the only one to be having this problem.