Bare with me, I'm not sure if all this will make sense or not as I'm not good at computer lingo but I'll try my best.

My husband was given a Compaq Presario 5000 series. Model 5400 US. It came with a Intel Celeron 1.2 GHz, and has 256 Kingston ram installed on it. It came with Windows XP Pro installed on it.

He did not however get the recovery disks that came with it, they were apparently lost. Needless to say he can not return it to factory condition and get rid of the networking/admin domain and pw's that the previous owner placed on it.

We've have tried looking online to order replacement cds but apparently even though the system was purchaced in 2002 due to the purchace by HP of Compaq, this model of cds have been discontinued? We cannot find them anywhere.

So we have decided to try a different route.

He now has a Windows XP Pro install cd, and he purchaced a new Maxtor 40 gig hd.

He removed the hard drive completely and put in the new one. He then tried to do a fresh install. It runs thru the checks and all well but when it gets ready to install he keeps getting an error.

Error
SXS.DLL : Syntax error in manifest or policy file "D:\i386\asms\1000\MSFT\WINDOWS\GDIPLUS.MAN" on line 4
Error
Instulation failed D:\i386\asms. Data error (cyclic redundancy check)

Fatal Error
One of the components windows needs to continue could not be installed.

Data Error (Cyclic redundacy check)

I've read up on other posts here and I see that alot say it could be a ram problem. We replaced the ram several times and it didnt work. So we went with another suggestion posted here about trying to copy the i386 folder to the hard drive and install from there.

Here are the command we followed to do this:
*note this WAS done after Fdisking and formating, and scandisk as previously suggested. With a windows 98 boot disk and from the A:/ command prompt*

smartdrv.exe
md c:i386
copy d:\i386 c:\i386 *at this point we get a file not found error on d.

So once again we are stuck.

The system only has one floppy as A:, one Hard Drive as C:, and only one CD ROM, which is D:. So I know the cd rom is drive D.

Help!!??!! Any suggestions?

I have no experience with Compaq, however I had a similiar prob with an IBM machine and got around it by making the new hard drive the slave. Then inserted the Xp disc into the Cd drive and used Xp to format and install to the slave. When that was completed I then made the slave the master, everything worked ok.
Hope this might help, good luck.

It sounds to me like the cd you are using is corupt in some way.Is it scratched?Is it a burnt copy of XP?Or possibly the cd-rom it self is malfunctioning.

The reason i think this is because all of your problems you are having originate in drive D: such as "cant copy" "file not found"

try swaping out cd-rom drive and or obtaining a NEW or know good operating system cd

MSI K7n2-delta ilsr mobo
AMD 2800+ 333 @2225 mhz
nVIDIA g-force 2 Ultra
2x512 matched DDR 2700
WD 74gb 10000rpm sata HD
Maxtor 20 gig 7200rpm HD
SB Live Platinum
1x creative 16x d

Going with the bad cd Idea, we tried installing XP Pro into a different machine (Also a compaq) that had been down for sometime.
It installed all the way down to 9 minutes remaining and then repeated itself. It then got a different kind of error, nothing to do with the cd rom. My husband ran a scan disk on it with xp to check for errors, it found and fixed some. He tried to install it xp pro on this second system again and it went right on. No problems. So I'm guessing nothing is wrong with the cd?

The other idea of installing it as a slave We haven't tried yet but will and report back.

One other idea I had? The system I'm typing this on now is an HP Pavilion. Its still in factory condition, meaning I have not added or removed any ram, hard drive... etc.

Could I remove my hard drive, set it aside, and put that new hd in this system and try to install it that way? As I know the ram, and cd are all in perfect working condition? Or would that not work either?

Thanks for everyones help.

The main prob you have is that the two machines are,"Proprietory", which means the manufacturer sets the machine up their way. Usually the hard drive has a hidden partition that is very hard to get at. IBM is another. Just another thought , you might have better luck on EBAY.

Sisy You probably will not have much luck removing the hard drive from one machine, installing it in another machine and installing XP on it. The reason is that XP is tied to the motherboard and other peripherals in your system. In plain english the drivers for the system you are working on are vastly different than the drivers and equipment you want to go to to install XP. XP would install OK but when you took the drive back to the original machine, it probably will not work. I say probably because there is a slim chance that it may work, but do not be surprised to find that all your efforts are in vain.

Follow the post above about installing it as a slave, set up the drive then change back to master.

Thanks Teri... gonna give that slave drive idea a shot. Not gonna bother with mine. Thanks for the heads up!