Problem installing Win2k

[Freddy47]

I have been having a MAJOR problem when trying to do a fresh install of Windows 2000. This is the what happens.....to begin setup, I use four Win2k boot disks. When prompted to, I enter the Win2k CD. I delete any existing partitions on the hard drive, and create a new one for Windows 2000. Then setup proceeds to format the new partition in NTFS format. Everything goes fine and dandy until setup tries to copy files onto the newly-formatted drive so it is able to boot into Windows. It will get about 20% done, and then an error message will come up saying such-and-such file was unable to be copied. I press the escape key to skip this file. Then, almost instantly, the same thing happens with a different file. This continues until a blue screen appears saying something to the effect of "If this is the first time this error message has appeared, restart Windows. If this messages continues, check to make sure all hardware is properly installed, remove any newly installed hardware, disable caching in BIOS..." and so on. I have tried everything I can think of to try to stop this error, including removing all PCI cards, swapping hard drives, formatting in FAT32, and using different Win2k Install disks. Unfortunately, I always end up with the same result: a blue screen of death. The odd thing is that I have reformatted my hard drive and installed Win2k this same way without these problems in the past! Can ANYONE help me out here????

Here is my system:
Asus A7M266 w/ BIOS rev. 1003
1200mhz AMD Athlon
(2) 256 mb Crucial DDR21000
Leadtek Geforce2 Ultra
IBM 40gb harddrive
SB Live!
USRobotics 56k modem
Plextor 16/10/40
Toshiba sd-m1502 dvd

 

[RustyNale]

Question: can't you boot from the cd? It should be bootable from the cd.

Question: are you oc'ing your system? If so, try setting it back to normal settings and attempt again.

Another thought, try just one stick of ram, one of them may be going bad and can cause these kind of errors...

Hope this shakes something loose for you..

 

[Freddy47]

Answer: The cd apparently is not bootable. The friend who helped me first put the system together gave me a copy of the Win2k Cd, but he told me it wasn't bootable, so thats why I use the disks.

Answer: Nope, never overclocked it or messed around with the BIOS in anyway

As I type this, I am trying only 1 stick of ram...hope this works!

Thanks for the reply, too.

 

[jmagg]

Your cdrom may be going south, switch it out. If not, try writing zeros to your harddrive. Get the utility from your harddrive manufacturers website.

 

[Cuular]

And my solution to the problem is the following. Remove the SB Live while doing the install, if it isn't bad memory. I had the exact same problem, and for me it was the SB Live causing some kind of weirdness.

 

[ShallowHal]

While the other suggestions are excellent, I would try using your friend's CD instead of the copy. If it works then you don't have to troubleshoot the hardware.
I had the same problem with a "shared" version of WIN2k.
Good Luck

 

[blues008]

Also, try installing with just the following:

Asus A7M266 w/ BIOS rev. 1003
1200mhz AMD Athlon
1 256 mb Crucial DDR21000
Leadtek Geforce2 Ultra
IBM 40gb harddrive
Plextor 16/10/40

And use the CD. Any CORRECT copy of the Win2K CD should work.

I've had the same problem before, but it turned out to be the hard drive, so you should also download IBM's hard drive utility to make sure everything is ok. A bad Western Digital hard drive I had turned out to be the culprit, and I RMA'ed it.

Good luck.

 

[Freddy47]

I think I finally got it working! I'm assuming it was bad memory, because I removed one of the 256mb sticks, and the install went completely through without a hitch. Thanks for all the suggestions, too!