XP Install Going Nowhere

[tkmadison]

I'm frustrated as hell.

I'm trying to reinstall XP on my older computer. Yes, it had XP on it before with no more problems than one usually experiences with XP (ahem).

However, I have not been able to do a fresh install onto a reformatted drive since I set it up.

What happens is that after the hardware inspection, it begins to copy the setup files as usual. But then it hangs. ...and hangs and hangs and goes absolutely nowhere. Usually while copying Kernel Debugger DLL, but sometimes it gets a little further than that. I know it isn't the media...I've tried three different XP Pro cds. A Dell OEM (no, the comp isn't a dell), a hologram oem, and my old burned copy. The same thing happens each and every time.

I've reformatted, repartitioned and it never makes a difference.

The only way I can manage to get XP to install is to first install Windows 98 and then upgrade...but then the upgrade doesn't turn out so well and it's buggy as hell.

So I installed Linux on the secondary hard drive on that computer. Didn't even bat an eyelash. It just did it.

I'm this ( [<-->] ) close to just ditching windows at this point. It runs like a dream on my new computer, and installs like a dream. Hell, it USED to install well on the old computer, too. And as far as I've been able to determine, there aren't any hardware problems.

Does anyone know if there is a common cause for it to just hang while copying files?

Edited August 24, 2006 by tkmadison

[CptMurphy]

What kind of harddrive are you using? Did you recently install anything hardware related? Can you install Linux on the same HDD that you're trying to install Win on?

[Takeshi]

File copying error is usually a hardware problem.

[LLXX]

Check your RAM with MemTest86+.

[tkmadison]

It's a 40 GB Maxtor that i've had kicking around for a while. And yes, linux installs on both HDs without a trace of a problem.

BUt I may have cleared it up.

Using linux' disk manager I reformatted the hard drive and after that I didn't have any problems installing windows. i'm going to have to chalk it up to windows being kind of sucky about it all. prior to linux it was a clean fat32. you'd think that wouldn't be a problem (and yes, checked for errors as well)

Thank you, everyone, for your responses.