Error when installing XP

[mach04]

I have a problem with a hard drive in a Compaq Presario station pc, which is the friend of mine formatted the drive and reinstalled Win XP on it but for some reason was not running as it should after the first installation. So he tried to reinstall the xp once again. The program now everytime formats the drive and can only install about 35% of the XP on the drive.
I have tested his drive with Hitachi safe disc and showed nothing. We have installed the xp using NFTS both normal and the fast way but the same problem appears which is it only installs about 35%, and everytime saying that it cant find some certain files to copy them.
Any suggestions what should be done to solve this??

 

[G0AOZ]

Not sure how well Hitachi Safe Disk software checks the disk for problems, but might be worth seeing if you can attach this hard disk to another machine, and then run CHKDSK /R on it.

Or, maybe the XP CD is scratched and this won't allow the CD drive to read some sectors of the disk?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[goombawaho]

Does the installation just stop with no error message?? I've seen bad RAM cause an error such as "unable to copy XXXX.dll".

 

[mach04]

Installation suddenly get stuck in finding a certain, then gives an option on wether to ignore it, stop installation and retry. By ignoring it, then it goes on reading other files and the same happens. Ususally it begins to happen after 35% of installation is done. The files that it cant read are either xxx.WAV or xxx.DLL.

The Windows CD is almost new, it came with the PC and had never been used, but I give it a try using another disc.

 

[Freestone]

Run a memory check:

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

http://www.memtest.org/

 

[goombawaho]

Or pull half the RAM and try the install. If error still happens, put that RAM back and pull the other half.

 

[wahnula]

I have had that problem with dirty or scratched XP CD media. Sometimes, copying the CD and booting from the copy is successful. Also, using another drive has worked for me in the past.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[mach04]

I ran the memory test on the PC didnt show any failure. I will try to make a copy of the Windows CD and use it to install it again. It will take a while to come back with the response as I am off for an assignemnt.

 

[G0AOZ]

Mach04, it is well worth considering a change of HDD. I've had disks that pass manufacturer's diags, but have clearly been proven to be "faulty" when trying to install or run Windows. The last four or five hard disk faults I've seen appear to relate to sectors taking upto 50ms (and sometimes more) to read. Although manufacturer's diags give 'em a "pass", installing a new disk completely solved the problems.

ROGER - G0AOZ.