Corrupt files, fresh install windows 7 x64

Hello,
I decided to upgrade from windows vista 64bit to windows 7 recently. I ran setup on boot from a windows 7 upgrade disk, deleted the partitions and installed. Everything seemed to run fine, until I tried opening my rar files. I keep getting file corrupt errors. It doesn't seem to be just my winrar either, I tried downloading the xp mode from the windows website and it was corrupt the first two attempts, and I tried downloading a photoshop trial and it was corrupt. It seems to be on and off, but mostly my files just seem to come out corrupt.
I've tried formatting and reinstalling three times, all seem to have the same results. I ran a memtest last night and it was fine this morning- im continuing to run it while at work just to make sure. Checkdisk comes out fine. Defrag doesn't seem to make a difference. I know I had trouble in vista running programs, so I've tried disabling UAC run as admin and that didn't make a difference. I tried reinstalling windows 7 while running windows 7 and got a message saying I needed to update the AFSPPIIS IDE Controller - could that have anything to do with this? Could it be my harddrive, is there any way to check? System repair says there's nothing wrong too.

I'm just really at a loss here.
I've done a couple searches and figured it might be worth making a thread of my own.

richc46 said:

Read our tutorials on installing. Very well written and they may help.

Alright, sounds good. When I installed I was using these steps exactly
Clean Install Windows 7

When I get home tonight I'll try the inplace upgrade from windows vista to 7

I'll let you know if it does anything

What are you running for firewall and antivirus?

R A said:

What are you running for firewall and antivirus?

I wasn't running anything yet, it was a formatted pc with a fresh install of windows
- I tried disabling windows firewall just in case with no luck

TGSoldier said:

Where did you get this copy of Windows 7?

Newegg.com

You don't want to do the in place upgrade. I would say, to completely zero out your Hard Drive, with copywipe. Then re-install. Once Windows 7 is finished installing download the driver for your NIC before doing anything else.

Hey, thanks for all the help guys. I tried running the wipe and it installed a little easier, but I still kept having problems with corruptions, downloads and installs. I had done a memtest that came out fine so I tried my second guess- the harddrive.
Installed Windows 7 on the new harddrive and everything runs fine :)