I'm trying a clean install of XP Pro sp1. Everything goes well, to a point. I am able to format the partition, I am able to type in the product key, the PC begins loading but soon after a window appears with the following message" "Some files on Windows XP Pro sp1 CD are needed." "Insert the Windows XP Pro sp1 in D:\i386." The CD is already in there, no matter what I click on, browse to, I cannot get these files to load. If I click skip/continue (whatever it says) the installation will continue. However, when starting up many of the files/programs are missing. What is happening, and more importantly, what can be done to correct this problem?

press ctrl+alt+del click file --then --click open(run task) --click browse--browse to local drive c: --look for i386...then look for the missing file ....copy it and -now browse to local drive c:--then goto windows folder--now look for system32 folder--now paste the file hre...try it....if the file is missing in the i386 folder then browse to winxp cd...then paste it to the i386 and the system32 folder...try it bobby.

This has been a problem with Microshafted and Whenhozed ever since W95 came upon the scene---the operating system is not smart enough to find the drive that it started from!!!! One thing you can do is to partition your drive with a FAT32 partition large enough to hold the \I386 folder off of the CDROM. You can actually laungh XP's install from there by booting with a '98 boot disk and executing winnt.exe--the XP file that starts "setup." Another thing you could try is punch "skip file" or "cancel" or whatever the bypass option is, and then run a "repair" after Windows X tra P utrid decides to quit.

Thanks all for the suggestions etc. I changed CDROM's and it installed completely. I'm still not satisfied that was the fix, I'm more inclined to believe the CD was either dirty or scratched somewhere. I'll know more the next time I try to use it. Again, thank you.