Re: Really really problematic Windows XP install.

From: Phillips (afn18721_at_afn.org)
Date: 06/24/04


Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 10:32:36 -0400

Mmmm,

1. Make sure that your HDD is installed correctly (pins, 80 or 40 wires
ribbon...), then check the BIOS settings: Master, 1st IDE device, PIO, DMA,
SMART, P-ATA, S-ATA or whatever it is; try setting everything on Auto or
Standard. Guess you have the latest BIOS and that they support legacy
storage devices - make sure you enable those options if available.

2. You might have a boken (corrupted :) mbr - try to boot w/ a W98 floppy
and type fdisk /mbr to make a new mbr. Also, you might have the disk write
protected or a hidden system partition... or anything else, but a a new mbr
at 0,0 would take care of most problems.

3. Otherwise, use a HDD utility (most HDD manufacturers have free, simple
disk utilities available for download). You can format and partition the
drive, or, at worst, write 0's on the whole drive and format again - albeit,
XP would be able to take it from there.

4. If your HDD works, install XP (i.e. XP copies the installation files on
HDD) on another machine till it reboots for setup; turn off the machine and
move the HDD in the computer of your choice. XP should start installing
drivers etc.

Michael

"Kens" <Kens@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C9633F8C-6DC3-4F5E-A288-3D5F2BE30B72@microsoft.com...
> Hi, so this is it, i have a a new motherboard new RAM, new graphics card,
new CPU.
> Its just the CD-rom and my hard drives thats old, the hard drives are
empty.
> I have the Windows XP install Cd in my cd-rom and i boot the computer and
start with the cd.
>
> The Windows XP install dialog starts and i eventually comes to the Install
where i get to choose where to install.
> I choose the hard drive i want to install on and XP wants to format it
first.
> Now it begins, the format fails with NTFS format, FAT works just fine.
> But it says that my hard drives is broken.
> Its not, i have moved it to others computers aswell and there it works
just fine.
> Well anyway if i choose the FAT instead then i get to the part when the
Install wants to copy the files to the harddrive and begins installation.
> But here the other part comes, sometimes it cant copy the files to the
harddrive at allt.
> It just says "Cant copy the selected file "xxxx.sys" and then i get the
option to ignore or try again.
> There is no problem with the CD as it works on other computers.
> I can install WIN 98 with no problems at all aswell as WIN ME.
>
> What to do?
>
>
> Regards Ken



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