Defective Xp home Installation Cd

[Guest]

Errors (copy file), (freezes) during installation. Will not install Windows
updates or programs after installation. When it does run it is very erratic
at best.
This cd is the first release for purchase after rc1/rc2 which both
installed and ran flawlessly. I installed Win 98 and ran it with no problems.
Reformatted the drive and installed 98se and ran that with no problems.
Reformatted and installed Me and ran that with no problems. Reformatted and
installed Xp home from a cd from one of my other computers and it also ran
with no problems (at this point I was tempted to activate it by lying to the
Windows activation operator and say it was on only one computer, I didn't,
which I'm still kicking myself in the butt for)!
Reformatted and again tried another installation with the cd and again copy
file errors and freezing during the installation. When and if it does boot up
, again it is very erratic.
I've run, memtest 86 with no errors (Corsair twin-x). Run Scandisk thorough
with no bad sectors, smart disk enabled in the bios (W.D. Raptor) before and
after all the other installations. Cleaned the cd -rw heads, even replaced
the cd-rw.
My conclusion is that the installation cd is defective. (There are no
scratches, it's not warped, it still appears to be in mint condition (50
installs or so)).
My question is; how do I test it or prove it is defective. (I registered it
with microsoft when I bought it, but never thought to keep the bill, so I'm
sure they wont replace it now.)

 

[xarryier]

Michael , did you delete the existing partition , Windows , before you
chose the option to begin the installation of XP during the
installation process ?

 

[Guest]

I used Fdisk to delete the partition, then created a new partition,
rebooted, formatted in fat 32, rebooted, ran scandisk (checking the surface),
error free, rebooted, set the bios to run from cd, inserted the cd, rebooted,
tried convert to ntfs, format quick ntfs, then format full ntfs, all with the
same result