I recently tried to install XP on a clean hard drive. I had previously indstalled it but had a few errors and such. So I figured I would do a fresh install once again and back up the hard drive this time. I tried for 5 hours to get it installed (XP Pro by the way) It got through the installation 2 times, but ran like crap. The rest of the time it would tell me that either my hard drive had errors, or that files were corrupted. I thought it was maybe the hard drive cables so I swapped them out. No go. Dirty cd player? No go. I asked myself why would files be corrupt when they are coming right off the cd? I knew my hard drive was fine because it's 1 month old. Now listen up people, because I have seen alot of problems with install errors, and errors when the system is up and going. When I thought back on it, the first time I tried to install I had similar problems, but I got through the install by what I think was pure luck. Problems: Corrupted files coming from the cd. Error messages regarding my hard drive. EULA not found on the cd.... installation aborted. Windows recovering from a "serious error" on intitial runs. HERES WHAT I FOUND! Before I got my LEGIT copy.... a friend of mine gave me a burned illegal copy of XP Pro. I figured I would use it for 30 days untill I got my legit copy. Of course I couldnt activate it.... but it worked for the 30 days like I said. I looked at the legit CD and saw no smudges, scratches or anything. BUT I found that held at the right angle, the CD surface looked a bit strange. It looked foggy, or a bit grainy if you will. I did this just on a hunch. I put the "burned" copy in and to my surprise the installation went FLAWLESSLY. For the first time in 5 hours I had NO errors. NONE. So I can only deduce from the hours of aggrivation from the "legit" cd that I had A BAD CD! STRAIGHT FROM MICROSOFT! All I did was put in my LEGAL cd key during the install and activated windows with no problem. ANYBODY with intall problems LOOK AT THE SURFACE OF YOUR CD!!! And I mean look good! Compare it to another Microsoft cd suck as Office XP or something. It should not be foggy or grainy! If it is.... It may very well be just what I have in this instance. I have seen some of you are having these very same problems that I have experienced. Check it out..... And let me know if you find the same as I have. Feel free to email me if you have any questions. I would be interested to find out if anybody else finds the same problem. Matt

Surely just a simple manufacturing defect that you were unlucky enough to come across? Or is it? Your description of the CD surface reminds me of the result of a CD copy protection technique proposed not too long ago by the likes of Sony and friends... A claim was that any attmpts to copy CDs using this protection system COULD result in physical CD reader and writer damage... I don't know enough about the technology but I know enough to at least suspect 'conspirancy theory' rubbish. Just wonderded if anyone knows anything else? Si

This "legit" copy had never been copied. It was fresh out of the box. I installed it with my CDRW drive, though I dont think a burner can hurt a regular cd by just running the install program. My "legit" copy is bad. That is a fact. It may be isolated.... but who knows? It's entirely possible that there was a bad run of cd's. It happens all the time. If this IS some sort of copy protection... then I wonder why people seem to be copying the cd's and making .iso files with no problem. Seems to me thats the wrong road to travel. All I know is I have a illegal "back up" copy activated with my "legal" cd key and I have no problems. The cd straight out of Microsofts box is the problem, not what I have done to it. I might suspect what you say had I tried to copy the legit copy, but I hadn't gotten that far to back it up yet, lol. Matt

There's nothing new about getting a bad cd now and then. Happens with music CD's, software and DVD's too. That's why they will gladly (as they imply in their warranty) replace the defective CD. These CD's are pressed by a machine in the thousands so you're going to have some defects in the batch like getting a Lemon of a car or a TV that dosen't work, ect. It's expected in mass produced products. Don't blame M$.

Not pointing fingers.... just stating facts and trying to help others with similar problems. I seriously doubt that my cd is the only one thats bad. Matt

Had the same problem. When I booted from the cd the problem was gone!

Um, that makes no difference. If the cd is bad, it's bad. I did try to boot from it, as well as an ME boot disk and running winnt.exe. NONE of the installations were successful. A bad cd is a bad cd, no matter what you do with it. Matt