Once upon a midnight dreary Fingers cramped and vision bleary System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor Longing for the sound of snoring Still I sat there reinstalling Having reached the copying stage I picked up my mug of Milo from the floor Suddenly an error box appeared Tis as bad as I had feared My computer could not find the file installing even though it had before. I activated the "Browse..." command And clicked the file as before. Only this and nothing more. Deep into the monitor peering Long I sat there wond'ring, fearing Doubting, while the disk kept churning Turning yet to churn some more. But the silence was unbroken And the stillness gave no token. "Load!" I yelled "You stupid machine!" "Load the data as before!" Only one thing did the phosphors answer Only this and nothing more. "Abort, Retry, Ignore." Hope you liked my poem! Anyway, I was reinstalling Windows XP and several files on the CD would not install. The installation program kept on poping up errors along the lines of "This file could not be found." So I clicked "Browse..." and... there it was! I double-clicked it, clicked "OK" and... low and behold, it was back again, even though I had specifically double-clicked it. Weird, huh? Anyway, When I finally got through the installation process and rebooted, I found to my shock that some files were missing, notably Windows Media Player and the Out of the Box Experiance program (oobe, usally in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe directory). This may not seem much of a big deal, but the problem is, OOBE is used to activate Windows! And when I installed Windows Media Player 9, I found that 90% of the codecs were missing! (Luckily I used AVIcodec to figure out which codecs I needed for my movies.) I tried copying the files on the CD-ROM to HD. Then I discovered that in the "E:\I386" directory, all the files from S to V wouldn't copy. That's my main basis for thinking that the installation media is corrupt. Please help! I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service... us.

Did you actually wrote the poem yourself? If you did, it's a nice one. As for the problem at hand... My mind is longing to wander off into the dreamland.... i_XpUser

Here's the full version XpUser... Abort, Retry, Ignore Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary, System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor, Longing for the warmth of bedsheets, Still I sat there, doing spreadsheets: Having reached the bottom line, I took a floppy from the drawer. Typing with a steady hand, I then invoked the SAVE command But got instead a reprimand: it read "Abort, Retry, Ignore". Was this some occult illusion? Some maniacal intrusion? These were choices Solomon himself had never faced before. Carefully, I weighed my options. These three seemed to be the top ones. Clearly, I must now adopt one - Choose: "Abort, Retry, Ignore". With my fingers pale and trembling, Slowly toward the keyboard bending, Longing for a happy ending, hoping all would be restored, Praying for some guarantee Finally I pressed a key -- But on the screen what did I see? Again: "Abort, Retry, Ignore". I tried to catch the chips off guard -- I pressed again, but twice as hard. Luck was just not in the cards, I saw what I had seen before. Now I typed in desperation, Trying random combinations. Still there came the incantation - Choose: "Abort, Retry, Ignore". There I sat, distraught, exhausted, by my own machine accosted; Getting up, I turned away and paced across the office floor. And then I saw an awful sight, A bold and blinding flash of light, A lightning bolt that cut the night and shook me to my very core. The PC screen collapsed and died, "Oh no -- my database", I cried. I thought I heard a voice reply, "You'll see your data-- Nevermore!" To this day I do not know The place to which our data goes Perhaps it goes to Heaven where the angels have it stored. But as for productivity - well, I fear it has gone straight to Hell. And that's the tale I have to tell - Your choice: "Abort, Retry, Ignore". Ignis vulpes impero

As to files from S to V I think it's plain to see Clean the drive & CD As to OOBE A couple double espressos and ten more hours you'll have OOBE an Out Of Body Experience M2

Here's my version: Abort, Retry, Ignore? To the metre of "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary, System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor, Longing for the warmth of bed sheets, still I sat there doing spreadsheets. Having reached the bottom line I took a floppy from the drawer, I then invoked the SAVE command and waited for the disk to store, Only this and nothing more. Deep into the monitor peering, long I sat there wond'ring, fearing, Doubting, while the disk kept churning, turning yet to churn some more. But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token. "Save!" I said, "You stupid machine! Save my data from before!" One thing did the phosphors answer, only this and nothing more, Just, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" Was this some occult illusion, some maniacal intrusion? These were choices undesired, ones I'd never faced before. Carefully I weighed the choices as the disk made impish noises. The cursor flashed, insistent, waiting, baiting me to type some more. Clearly I must press a key, choosing one and nothing more, From "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" With fingers pale and trembling, slowly toward the keyboard bending, Longing for a happy ending, hoping all would be restored, Praying for some guarantee, timidly, I pressed a key. But on the screen there still persisted words appearing as before. Ghastly grim they blinked and taunted, haunted, as my patience wore, Saying "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" I tried to catch the chips off guard, and pressed again, but twice as hard. I pleaded with the cursed machine: I begged and cried and then I swore. Now in mighty desperation, trying random combinations, Still there came the incantation, just as senseless as before. Cursor blinking, angrily winking, blinking nonsense as before. Reading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" There I sat, distraught, exhausted, by my own machine accosted. Getting up I turned away and paced across the office floor. And then I saw a dreadful sight: a lightning bolt cut through the night. A gasp of horror overtook me, shook me to my very core. The lightning zapped my previous data, lost and gone forevermore. Not even, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" To this day I do not know the place to which lost data go. What demonic nether world us wrought where lost data will be stored, Beyond the reach of mortal souls, beyond the ether, into black holes? But sure as there's C, Pascal, Lotus, Ashton-Tate and more, You will be one day be left to wander, lost on some Plutonian shore, Pleading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" Anyway, none of this is really helping me. It seams everyone is having an out of brain experience :) . Please help and thanks in advance. I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service... us.

poetry=off Did you clean the CD & drive? M2

Well, my first instinct was that the CD needed cleaning, so I cleaned it with one of those CD cleaning packs. Now it won't go past the "Formatting Drive C:" stage (I always do a re-format when I do a re-install.) It just sits there doing nothing, looking stupid with "0% complete". You may say that it sometimes takes a long time when formatting a disk, but I left it there for 3 hrs and it still had "0% complete". And, usally it only does it in 25-30 mins (this is a 40GB HD). As for partitioning, I usally use a 15GB NTFS for OS, 15GB NTFS for programs, 9GB ext3fs for Red Hat Linux and 1GB Linux swap space. I store all my data on the second HD, also 40GB, in one huge FAT32 partition that takes up the whole drive. (I use FAT32 for compadibility with other OS's, as only the Windows NT line can see NTFS drives.) There also seams to be a problem with the InstallShield Wizard, it can't seam to locate the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) server, or the Windows Installer service, but when I checked in Services (Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services) it had already been started. I've checked InstallShield's website, and it's been very helpful, but I've tried everything they've thrown at me and it doesn't work. The message is as following: "The InstallShield (iKernel.exe) could not be launched. The RPC server is unavailable." Or this: "The Windows Installer Service could not be acceced. This can occur if you are running Safe Mode, or the Windows Installer is not properly installed. Please contact your support personnel for assistance." To my knowledge, I am not running in Safe Mode (otherwise the screen would be stuck at 640x480 and "Safe Mode" would be displayed in the corners.) I've tried downloading the Windows Installer from Microsoft and installing it, but to no avail. Same as the InstallShield Wizard from InstallShield. Any help would be appreciated. I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service... us.