hi, i just built my new system and i try to install xp, and i just cant get it to install on my maxtor 80gig 2mb cahce (quiet version) I get into the setup screen, press f8 to accept the agreement, then it converts my hd to NFTS, after that it starts intsalling the xp files to my hd. NOW that would be really great if it worked, but hte prob is that around 30% sometimes different cause its usually different files, it says installation failed due to blah balh (file name) please restart. Now i am beyond the point of frustration, i dont htink i installed any of the hardware wrong. i just installed the hd (ATA) by putting it into the IDE 1, and my cdrom/cdrw into the IDE2. is there anything that i missed, or am doing wrong to cause this stupid install error??? plz plz plz help me because i am beyond the point of frustration, and u guys are really smart and usually help everyone out! PLZ! THX

What boot sequence did you set the cdrom and harddrive to in the bios prior to installing XP? Is is set to cdrom first, harddrive second? After XP is installed you change it to IDE harddrive first, cdrom second.

Adrian, I had a similar problem but this doesn't mean my problem was the same as yours. I couldn't get beyond the same point as yourself and it ended up bing that the CD Drive i put on the system wasn't recognized by XP. I found it strange that it would install that far with the CD DRive in question and then fail because of the same CD Drive it got that far with? Took me a long time to figure out but running out of alternatives i took the CD Drive out of a system that was already running XP and it completed the install and i've never had another problem since. It could turn out that it's a different piece of hardware for yourself so start by stripping anything you don't absolutely need (use only 1 stick of RAM if you have more than one and if it stisll fails try one of the other ones and if it still fails borrow a stick form a friend that you know is working) and if you do have access to a known good working CD Drive try using that. Your mobo is new so it shouldn't have a problem with the 80 gig HD but it couldn't hurt to see if there's an updated BIOS for the board if all else fails. Good luck. ciao, wired

>I get into the setup screen, press f8 to accept the agreement, then it converts my hd to NFTS,< I don't recognize the sequence of events. First, do you cold-boot from the CDROM? 2nd, do you enter the format screen (2nd screen), remove all partitions and the entire HD should now be raw space; reset your NTFS partition(s), and format in NTFS; 3rd, after format is complete (takes a long time, several minutes), the setup sequence automatically starts?

well basically it just fails at copying a file, i just cant understand why! my ram is a single stick of ocz 512mb pc3200 ram. should i just go wiht 98 or will i get the saem problems?