Hi AndrewF,

Please list the specs for your computer including motherboard, ram, cpu, power supply, and all those little details that describes your computer. Be very specific about what type and brand name hard drives (and other drives also) you have, how they are set up including jumpers, where on the ribbon cable (if IDE), and on which place on the motherboard. (example IDE #1). That way we can get a better picture of what might be happening that aborts your install.

Post back with questions/concerns.

 

wowzers...I'm at work right now so I might have to get back to you on most of that. I'll go from memory right now for what its worth.

Motherboard - no idea from memory
Powersupply - same
AMD Athalon 1.6
256MB RAM
40G HD - I'll figure out brand tonight
ATI All in Wonder 32 MB

Everything is about 4 1/2 yrs old on the computer. Other than that, most of what you asked for I have no answer for right now. I'll get more info tonight. Anything I should try tonight in the mean-time?

Also I was having problems right before I formatted with installing anti-virus programs. I was using AVG for a few months without a problem. Then out of no-where it said I had to DL it again. However after unistalling AVG...DLing it again, I was unable to install (kept saying I had to DL again). Same happened for another free antivirus that I tried.

 

Hi,

I just forgot a couple of things. First, have you changed anything since the computer was working, like anything new, any changes to the system?

If you have not changed anything except the anti-virus thing, then you might have to zero fill the drive before you proceed to reload the OS. A first step for you (if nothing has changed) might be to find the name of the drive that you have, and then get the utility for that drive from their website and use that to format the drive instead of doing it with windows. If that does not work, then we may need to use Dban to "0" fill the drive (takes a while), but cleans it much more than a normal format.

Anyhow, let us know when ready and we will try to walk you through it. Oh, almost forgot to mention.....see my memory is gone....be sure you have your boot order set in the BIOS setup menu to:

CDRom - 1st
Floppy - 2nd
Hard Drive you want to boot from - 3rd

Don't forget like I did....save before you exit if you make changes.

Post back with questions/concerns.

 

I haven't changed any hardware recently. I was having trouble in the last few weeks with my sound card (don't know type lol) so I had to DL driver and played with card in computer to clean it off but thats it. I haven't change my boot order. I knew I was supposed to, but so far ive just waiting for the prompt that says press any key to boot from cd. Didn't think that it made a difference.

 

Hi,

O.K., when you get home, download the drive manufacturer's utility for that drive and use that to test, partition, and format the drive.

Then, when you finish that, then enter your Bios setup menu (usually press DEL when computer starts up), and make sure your boot order is set to:

CDRom - 1st
Floppy - 2nd
Hard Drive - 3rd (one you want to boot from)

Note: Don't forget to save before you exit.

Then, put your OS disk in the CDRom, boot up and see what happens. Report back with questions/concerns/progress or lack thereof.

 

Ok, thanks for the help so far. I didn't see your last message before I went home for the night. I found out my comp. specs though, not sure if its all correct though.

Motherboard - AK75 - EO or VIA VT82C686B or Winbond W49F002Up12P
- Pheonix BIOS - D686 BIOS
Powersupply - Y2K Switching Power Supply Model PSIV-350-1
AMD Athalon 1.6 Ghz
256MB RAM
40G HD - AT Fireball Plus AS
CD-R/RW Drive Model: GC#-8160B
DVD-ROM Drive Model: DRD-8160B
2 x 12V fans
ATI All In Wonder Radeon 32 MB
D-Link PCI DLE-528 CT 32 Bit Combo
Sound Blaster Live 5.1

As far as the motherboard goes I wasn't sure where to look for info. so I just took down all that I could off of it. Hope you can tell from that information which motherboard I have. Quick question. When you say drive manufacturer's utility that would be my HD? SO AK75? Sry lol. I'll change bios setup tonight. However I can't DL drive manufacturer's utility because the only acess to internet I have is at work (not possible to DL) and at home where my comp is shot

 

Hi,

If you don't have a way to download that, then just try to set the boot order in the BIOS setup menu. Save and exit. Put the OS disk in the CDRom, then boot up and when it comes up....let it partition and format the drive before you try to let it install. Tell us what happens.

By the way, the Quantum Fireball is a very old drive (now owned by Maxtor) and not made anymore. The were a very good drive, but the age might have caught up with it. However, try what I said first and see what happens. We will go from there.

 

Ok, I'll change bios setup tonight. Just so I know is AK75 my motherboard??

I think that is an AOpen motherboard.

Oh and also is Y2K the type of powersupply or did I copy down the wrong thing?

I doubt if that is the power supply, never heard of that one.

Any idea what a good HD would be for me to upgrad to? Something cheap preferablly lol, I'll be a student again shortly :-/

There are so many good ones out there with great prices right now and if that is the issue you need to work on, will try to guide you to a good one at a reasonable price. Let's hold and see what happens with this tonight before we go there.

 

Hi,

Sorry, I thought I was quoting your thread, but ended up editing it, so look at your last post. Anyhow, look at the above for the answer to what I gave. Will try not to do that anymore....darn it, just messed up. Let me know what happens.

 

Alright thanks again for the help. I'll get back to you tomorrow on how this works. What I find wierd is that last time I formatted (about a month ago) I was able to format and setup xp without editing BIOS setup menu. I did run into a similar error with copying files while setting up xp but when I tried to setup with a different xp cd from a friend the setup went through without a problem. This time both cd's and an xp home edition cd won't work at all. Same errors.

 

Well I spoke with a guy here at work who seems to think i should be able to copy down all the file names that will not copy succesfully. Then after the setup is finished, I should be able to perform a repair install and manually copy the files from the cd.

Also, know of any sites that will walk me through the process of manually copying files during a system repair?

He also suggested that i could try taking the HD out of my comp, installing it in a different computer and try setting xp up on it that way.

How does this sound? I'll try these if editing the BIOS doesn't work.

 

Ok, so I edited BIOS to boot from CD first. Still ran into the sam errors when attempting to setup XP. I copied all of the files that could not be succesfully copied from the cd. Afterwards, when trying to manually copy the files during a system repair It was saying that I was not authorized to copy the files from e:\I386\ to c:\windows\system32\ Any idea how to get around this? Should I just try taking the HD out of the computer and trying to setup XP on a diferent computer?

 

Hi,

Let's back up a bit. Why not ask a friend to download the utility that runs from drive A: when you try to boot up. That way you can test things and possibly have the utility partition and format that drive. That would be my suggestion. The next question, is that while you can load the OS on another computer, when you put in in yours, it will be looking for the other motherboard and not yours. One can get around that with a Repair Install at times, but I would take the manufacturer's utility route first.

 

Umm the reason u cant copy certain files is because of the optical drive, (if not the hard drive), or a scratched disk. when i work we notice that with computers having that problem we can do a few things. First we attempt using a different optical drive (just unpluggin any of the other cd-roms and grab one from another computer plug it in as master and let it go) that almost always allows for copying the files. Also make sure ur install disk is clean... I didnt read all the replies so im sorry if im stomping on someones grounds just read the first one and had the answer off the bat, if u still have other problems please post, id like to help.

::EDIT:: if its a dell dimension computer that u have (the tall black/gray towers) let me know, i know i didnt read up, but they have a problem within their bios as well when u try a format.. simple fix though