Windows XP Re-install Can't Copy File

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From: Frank Huddleston (fhuddles_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 04/10/04 

Date: 10 Apr 2004 11:17:25 -0700

Here's the situation: A friend has a computer running Windows XP,
which had been upgraded from, I think, Windows 95. XP was on a FAT32
partition. The symptom was that the computer would boot, say it needed
to check and repair the disk, do the check and repair, say it needed
to reboot, but upon rebooting, say it needed to check and repair the
disk again. Ad infititum, except I didn't wait that long.
I tried a repair, but could not satisfy the Administrator password; my
friend said he didn't set one, and the manual said it was blank, but
entering nothing and hitting return just gave me the C:\WINDOWS
prompt, and entering a single blank and hitting return said it was an
invalid password. So I opted to reinstall from CD. I formatted the
partition using NTFS, but the installation failed while copying
files., with the "Cannot copy file" message. Retrying just recreated
the error. Skipping the file would just produce the same error on, I
assume, the next file in the list. The last few times I tried the
install, I think the file it stopped on was drivers.cab.
I've retried the installation a few times, with these variations:
- Sometimes I try the Quick Format for the partition. Frequently, or
maybe always, this hangs.
- Twice I have gotten blue-screen halts. Once it was a Stop 0xA,
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, and the most recent time it was a Memory
Check. These have occurred when I was retrying the copy.
>From what I've read, it sounds as though it might be a hardware
problem, possibly in memory, the motherboard, or the cpu. Does anyone
have any suggestions as to what to try? Can you suggest diagnostics to
isolate the problem more? I realize I haven't given any specifics
about the hardware; I could get more information if necessary. Keep in
mind that this computer had been running Windows XP for some time
before these problems.

Thanks,

Frank Huddleston

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