Compaq Presario 5000, Model 5BW220, Intel Celeron, 06c0 motherboard, made 7/15/00, WD Caviar SE 320G HD. I'm trying to install XP Home on a new hard drive with an OEM installation CD. I'm able to get through the partitioning and formatting, but when the installation automatically reboots part way through the process the only screen that comes back up is the original screen with the message: "Press any key to boot from the CD. A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". If I do press the spacebar from this screen the installation just starts from the beginning again. I can't get past the partitioning and formatting steps. Someone suggested to remove the installation disk just before or after the reboot, but this made no difference. The hard drive and dvd burner are new as are the IED cables and burner cable. I tried installing with an old burner but that didn't work either. All the connections are secure. I checked them several times. Also, I believe I had the burner set as the master and the HD set as the slave and cable select, and both the burner and HD attached to separate IED cables and both set as master and the HD set at the single setting that is with no jumper. None of this made any difference. The HD installation CD does not work either. It gets part way into the installation then stops. A tech guy tested the HD installation CD, and it worked for him. He also tested the HD and said it was fine. He did not test my Windows installation CD. I have tried installing with this Home installation cd several times, so each time I try now I get a message saying that the o/s already exists and that it's not recommended to install another o/s on the same partition. Should I just ignore this message each time I try to install? The burner, HD and floppy are all listed in the bios. I've tried booting from both the burner and floppy drive set as number one in the sequence. xxxxxxxxxx

You mentioned that you have new cables for the drives. You also mentioned that you have used the CS jumper settings...this could be your problem. Do not use the cable select jumper settings if you have new cables. This is the proper connections that you should have in your BIOS for the drives Primary Master .......boot harddrive Primary slave .......none or back-up hdd Secondary Master......main optics drive secondary slave.......extra optics drive Make sure that all drive jumper settings are correct to that configuration. Now the cables are to be installed a certain way as well... The cables should be marked for which connector plugs into the motherboard connector. If not then it is usually a blue connector that goes to the motherboard. If it is all the same color then the the end that is longest from the middle connector plug is the proper one for the motherboard. The opposite end connector is for the master drive and the middle one for the slaved drives.... Note**** Some harddrives have jumper settings for master..no slave and for master with slave. Make sure that you have the right one selected. Note********* I highly recommend that you remove all slaved drives till after the operating system is installed. The hit ctrl>alt>delete message is usually a sign of failing hardware such as a harddrive or one that has corrupted sectors on it. This can be caused by an improper installation and is easily fixed. Use the manufactures disc and boot to it and choose to remove all partitions and reformat the drive and then perform an integrity check to make sure the disc is ok....Sometimes even a new drive is bad. If everything checks out then use the xp home disc to boot to and reinstall the operating system. Follow the prompts carefully and reset the partition and reformat accordingly....once past that and it reboots....DO NOT HIT ANY MORE KEYS to boot to CD. It will boot automatically during the installation process. It is the disadvantaged who habitually elect Democrats on the belief of personal change--- yet they remain disadvantaged.

Press any key to boot from the CD. NO DO NOT. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826... Windows XP Setup Restarts the Setup Program When Your Computer Restarts --------------------- In your last two Postings, you do not reply to any suggestions from others. You will get little help that way.