XP won't install

[t4t3r]

so i come home to my pc last friday and linux is up (linux on an old maxtor hard drive and xp on my newer 80gb western digital 8mb cache one). restart so i can get into windows and it restarts at the loading windows screen every time. slightly annoyed i figure a format wouldnt hurt, even though i lost all my music, pictures, etc, but you do what you gotta do. well, xp wont install on the hard drive anymore. i used one xp disc and it would get the xxx.dll file cannot be copied, and basically every file after that would be the same until the install just stopped. try a different disc (known now to be fine as i used it to install xp on my other machine) and it gets errors, of all files, on windows wav files :disgust: and then here's the kicker...just so i can use the machine i try to install linux (ubuntu to be exact) and it goes on flawlessly, multiple times actually.

so in summary, xp refuses to install on this machine yet linux goes on without issue. any ideas?

 

[stockjock]

couple of things...have you done anything different lately, like to try to overclock and mess with the voltage?? If so, you might have to raise the Voltage a little more to get XP to work..

Also, Go HERE and DL WD Date Lifeguard and check your drive out.

 

[t4t3r]

nope after overclocking the machine in the past its been at stock settings since i dont use it as much as i used to. so i havent changed anything lately.

thanks i will give that a shot and see if there are any problems with the drive itself.



anyone else?

 

[stockjock]

I would go into the bios anyway and reset it just to make sure...other than that, good luck!

 

[boggsie]

1) Reset to BIOS (most compatable) defaults
2) Reseat memory sticks
3) Reseat PCI/AGP cards
4) Reseat Floppy & Drive cable connections
5) Run memtest86 from bootable CD

If all that works and windows still doesn't install ... I give up.

 

[Underclocked]

Might try using the WD software to zero the drive out... or KillDisk.

 

[Cares]

I have a problem like this on one of my old systems. I can install Linux flawlessly but not Windows XP. But I know my problem is having errors on my RAM. If I change my RAM, then I can install Windows without problems.