win me/xp installation problems

[Slapus]

So my friend decided he wanted to format his HD, seeing as how it was cluttered (he was running Win XP Pro at the time.) So I told him to boot with the Win XP HOME CD (don't ask) and re-install windows and the installer should format for him. He tried this and while re-installing XP he got corrupted file errors then the installer gave a BSOD.

I go over to his house to help resolve this. First we deleted the existing partition that the new XP install attempt created. Then I try to re-install XP using NTFS. Same thing, more corrupted file errors then a BSOD. So I delete this partition again and try to install using FAT32. No go again, yet more corrupted file errors. The strange thing was, however, that they were different files that were "corrupted" as opposed to the ones when installing using NTFS. So this is beyond me, I'm not a Windows expert. I had brought over my copy of Win ME and a ME boot disk (he just needs an OS for the rest of the week; he's getting Win XP Pro again this weekend.) After fighting with the boot disk and cd for a while I finally get the installer running. Seems to be going good, but he has to go to practice and I need to go as well.

Now he just called me, telling me that when he got home there was a BSOD saying something about a windows protection error. So he restarted and it gave him the option to boot normally or in safe mode. Both, he claimed, resulted in the ME loading screen then the same BSOD with the windows protection error. So he then re-installed ME, and this time it was succesful but when he tried to boot up ME, once again the BSOD with the windows protection error reared it's ugly head. He gets the BSOD during the ME load screen every time now since he's re-installed, regardless of whether it's normal or safe mode.

Anybody have any suggestions/comments? Thanks in advance.

 

[Slapus]

bump

 

[Herbal92]

One thing left.

FDISK the sucker and reinstall the OS. If that doesn't work, then use a low-leval formatting utility thats is avaiable from the manufactuer's site. (the hard drive)

Some specs might help. Ask your friend to take all the hardware out too (except video, ram, mobo, hd, cpu. psu, cd-rom, floppy)

 

[Slapus]

<< FDISK the sucker and reinstall the OS. >>


tried it =/ that's what i meant when i said we deleted the partitions, i used fdisk

i'll try the formatting utitily you mentioned, thanks

i know some of his specs, it's p3 600, 640 MB RAM (he just added two 256 sticks, could that be causing trouble?) and that's about all i can think of off the top of my head

 

[Lord Evermore]

Bad memory very well could be causing the trouble. Or, depending on his chipset, I don't know what would happen if you used high-density chips in a board whose chipset didn't support them.

I have to ask, how in the world do you get a "cluttered" system so bad you have to format after the OS has only been out for a few months?

 

[NiPeng]

Yeah I agree. Could be a hardware problem. Give things a try without the recently added ram.

 

[Mem]

Hmmm does sound like a hardware problem,I had a CPU go faulty and acted in a similar way,so I would start ruling out your hardware if possible.

 

[Slapus]

<< have to ask, how in the world do you get a "cluttered" system so bad you have to format after the OS has only been out for a few months? >>



he upgraded to xp instead of doing a clean install