Problem installing xp pro

[vidster 10]

I bought a laptop running xp. The guy said he could not find the xp disk and would post it on to me but it never arrived.

My brother gave me a copy of xp pro with a multi user product key so i decided to install xp pro. It erased my copy and started re-installing but stopped part of the way through saying it was unable to copy a certain file.

Now i have a useless black box and want to know of a way of getting it running again.

1. Do you think that it is just a case of this xp pro disk being dodgy?.

2. Is there any way of getting the laptop running while i wait for another copy?.

[wendy 10]

Can you be a bit more specific - what file can't it find? I do have a reason for asking. I had a problem the other year when I was installing xp on my son's machine as his couldn't find a particular file - this a file that is used in the installation of xp but can't be copied from any disk or found anywhere else. It turned out to be a hardware problem - he had a faulty ram chip, once I replaced that it worked fine.

 

Xp tests the hardware pretty comprehensively on install and if it finds any problem it stops but doesn't always tell you why. The best thing I can think of suggesting is try putting 98se on for the time being and doing it as an upgrade because that way you do get the error message that tells you why it won't continue with the install.

 

Although, others may have better suggestions or even more ideas why this occurred. Either way I am sure we will need more detail.

[vidster 10]

It's not a specific file that it refuses to load. It is almost like the cd drive is getting too hot. If i take the disk out and let the laptop cool down, it installs more of the files. I have managed to get it to install 100% but i had already skipped 1 or 2 files and i got the blue screen of death when it rebooted itself.

I will be trying to install again tomorrow.

[mr.blaze 10]

Why not copy the cd to the hard-drive and install from there?

[Martin_s 10]

Originally posted by vidster

It is almost like the cd drive is getting too hot. If i take the disk out and let the laptop cool down, it installs more of the files.

I've seen this happen a couple of times but couldn't state it's definitely the issue...

 

You could try J-Blaze's suggestion as a workaround... if that doesn't work then you can only assume you've a duff CD copy.

[vidster 10]

Originally posted by J-Blaze

Why not copy the cd to the hard-drive and install from there?

 

At the moment i have only the bios available to me when i switch on. The HD was formatted by the new xp pro disk. When i boot from the xp pro disk it tells me that i have 6GB (roughly) memory and 6GB available so i am guessing that it has completely reformatted.

I am going to try again with plenty of fans to keep it cool and cross my fingers. Failing that i will do what wendy suggested and install win98 and then upgrade, although this will be the last option with me only having 6GB HD.

I will keep you all up to date with my progress, Thanks for the suggestions

[vidster 10]

After using a fan and a couple of blocks of ice, it installed no problem (well apart from taking 2 hours), but it's up and running now and i'm a happy chappy again!.

Got to shoot, I need a word or two with someone on another forum that accused me of having an illegal copy of xp pro.

[fredsredhat 10]

I'm just assuming here, and tell ime if i'm wrong.... but if your machine has 6 GB of hard disk space i'm assuming it's quite an old, lower spec machine? Ideally windows XP needs quite a high spec machine to get the best out of it ( through experience at least 1GHZ chip and 256 mb ram) I maybe wrong and if i am let me know. Nick.

[vidster 10]

Originally posted by fredsredhat

I'm just assuming here, and tell ime if i'm wrong.... but if your machine has 6 GB of hard disk space i'm assuming it's quite an old, lower spec machine? Ideally windows XP needs quite a high spec machine to get the best out of it ( through experience at least 1GHZ chip and 256 mb ram) I maybe wrong and if i am let me know. Nick.

 

Your right!. My system only has a 600mhz p3 and 244mb ram.

To get the most out of it i disable any services not needed and tweak the registry a little. As it only really gets used for the internet i find it runs ok, although if someone wants to donate one to a good home........

[wendy 10]

I don't wish to confuse matters but I installed xp on my daughter's machine without any difficuly and it runs fine.

She has a Pentium 3 550Mhz chip with 384mb of ram so the age and speed may not be entirely relevant in this instance.

[mr.blaze 10]

Just to add: The XP installation is nowhere near 6 GIG.