I am installing win on new 80 gig hd. I have the choice of installing either w2k pro or xp pro & I am having a problem installing both of them. I put the cd in, setup runs, formats the drive per my instructions (after deleting then creating a partition), and it starts to install the necessary files. At this point, I get an error message that states that there was a problem copying certain files (they are not always the same files for both xp & 2k) and that I have the choice of retrying, skipping or quitting. I have tried all 3 & get nowhere.

To solve this problem I have done the following: installed a new HD (the current 80 gig). Removed & reinserted all connections. Removed the older 128 memory board (left the two 1-year old 256 boards). No difference. Same error messages.

Could it be the CD-Rom? The disks? They are copies made by my IT buddy. Two factors against the disks as the problem: I couldn't install my old Win98 OS either, although I didn't encounter the same error messages. The setup for 98 terminated early. 2nd reason: I had used one of the w2k disks for earlier setup w/o incident. Yes: 3 different disks (2 w2k, 1 xp), none work.

Thanks in advance. Sorry for the length, but I wanted to be detailed.

Hmm, I know that there was a distribution of XP Pro floating around for a while that had issues with copying a specific file, but it was always the same one.

Have you tried using a different CD drive? Maybe the one you're using is faulty or dirty so that it is not reading the discs very well.

MS does not copy protect their Windows CDs (not yet, anyway) so if your buddy made you a copy it should work. Burned CDs should not be the problem, as long as they were burned correctly.

You have some big HD space there.. why not use it.. use DOS to copy the contents of one of the CD's to the HD and run setup from there :)

If its the CDROM it will have the same prob copying BUT you have more power to re-copy the failed files again later :D

Try that
Chris

Problem with copying to the drive is that you can't boot to the CD to install Windows, makes it messy to change partition info and format.

Sounds to me like a RAM problem. I've had similar problems and by removing one of the DDR modules (or the other) the system installed fine.
Or if you have just one stick, try it in a different slot.

Greg

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm switching the memory sticks around as I type this. If this doesn't do it, I had some success installing win98 after all. I'll install it & "upgrade" to 2k. If that isn't a go, I'll consider a new cd-rw. Thanks for all of your help.