B
BillyL
Thank you Elephantboycomputers for that great reply.
Restores my faith in the usefulness of this site - which
had been eroding. Anyway, the background on this is as
follows:
During a routine clean install to a former Windows 98
machine, after the hard disk reformatting process
completed, and the computer had copied about 80% of the
new files correctly, it began to have trouble copying a
few of the files. Several of the balky files did
successfully copy, though, after pressing 'retry' (enter)
repeatedly. However, one of them finally just wouldn't
go. I got the message: "Setup cannot copy the file:
ndisuio.sys. To retry, press Enter (which was
unsuccessful even after repeated tries). My only other
choices were to skip or to quit. I thouroghly cleaned
the cd and that didn't help. So, I took the disk to
another computer where I was able copy the troubled files
from the disk, proving that the CD itself was fine.
Several people replied suggesting it was a bad CD-ROM
drive. One helpful reply said that he gets this problem
all the time at work and solves it by replacing the
drive. So, it seemed reasonable - however, I do
not "know" this is the problem - and in fact, I rather
suspect it is not (because that drive has been just fine
until right this moment).
Anyway, it's interesting that you said this install
problem might be related to RAM. One problem I was
having with this computer anyway prior to XP install was
that when two 256MB RAM modules were installed, a Norton
systems RAM diagnostic test would indicate there was a
RAM problem. If I took one of the two out (it didn't
matter which, or which slot), there was no problem. I
never figured this out - but right now, both of those
modules are in there. Would you recommend, before going
through all the other trouble, that I just pull that
second RAM module and retry the installation?
BillyL
Malke wrote:
Hi - Since you didn't quote any of your original post,
I'm kind of
coming in blind here, but failures to install MS
operating systems are
usually because of faulty hardware. If the installation
is just
stopping and you *know* it's the cd-rom drive (not my
first choice for
culprit) then the installation is hosed. Shut down,
replace the bad
cd-rom drive, format, reinstall. No, you don't need to
have Win98
installed first; for an upgrade all you need is the Win98
disk to use
as qualifying media.
That said, usually the prime suspects in hardware
failures are RAM and
hard drive, in that order. You can run a RAM test now,
without an
operating system installed on a hard drive (and without a
hard drive
for that matter) by booting with Memtest86. Get it at
www.memtest86.com
and because you think you may be having trouble with your
cd drive,
download the precompiled Windows version to make a
bootable floppy.
Boot with it and let the test run for quite a while, like
overnight,
unless you see errors right away. As for the hard drive,
download a
diagnostic utility from the mftr.'s website. You will
also make a
bootable floppy with that one. If you find all this
hardware testing
difficult, then take the machine to a good local repair
shop (not a
Best Buy or CompUSA type of store). No matter what piece
of hardware is
actually bad, you are going to have to do a format and
clean install.
The current partial installation is hosed.
Post back if you need more help, and good luck.
Malke
Restores my faith in the usefulness of this site - which
had been eroding. Anyway, the background on this is as
follows:
During a routine clean install to a former Windows 98
machine, after the hard disk reformatting process
completed, and the computer had copied about 80% of the
new files correctly, it began to have trouble copying a
few of the files. Several of the balky files did
successfully copy, though, after pressing 'retry' (enter)
repeatedly. However, one of them finally just wouldn't
go. I got the message: "Setup cannot copy the file:
ndisuio.sys. To retry, press Enter (which was
unsuccessful even after repeated tries). My only other
choices were to skip or to quit. I thouroghly cleaned
the cd and that didn't help. So, I took the disk to
another computer where I was able copy the troubled files
from the disk, proving that the CD itself was fine.
Several people replied suggesting it was a bad CD-ROM
drive. One helpful reply said that he gets this problem
all the time at work and solves it by replacing the
drive. So, it seemed reasonable - however, I do
not "know" this is the problem - and in fact, I rather
suspect it is not (because that drive has been just fine
until right this moment).
Anyway, it's interesting that you said this install
problem might be related to RAM. One problem I was
having with this computer anyway prior to XP install was
that when two 256MB RAM modules were installed, a Norton
systems RAM diagnostic test would indicate there was a
RAM problem. If I took one of the two out (it didn't
matter which, or which slot), there was no problem. I
never figured this out - but right now, both of those
modules are in there. Would you recommend, before going
through all the other trouble, that I just pull that
second RAM module and retry the installation?
BillyL
Malke wrote:
Hi - Since you didn't quote any of your original post,
I'm kind of
coming in blind here, but failures to install MS
operating systems are
usually because of faulty hardware. If the installation
is just
stopping and you *know* it's the cd-rom drive (not my
first choice for
culprit) then the installation is hosed. Shut down,
replace the bad
cd-rom drive, format, reinstall. No, you don't need to
have Win98
installed first; for an upgrade all you need is the Win98
disk to use
as qualifying media.
That said, usually the prime suspects in hardware
failures are RAM and
hard drive, in that order. You can run a RAM test now,
without an
operating system installed on a hard drive (and without a
hard drive
for that matter) by booting with Memtest86. Get it at
www.memtest86.com
and because you think you may be having trouble with your
cd drive,
download the precompiled Windows version to make a
bootable floppy.
Boot with it and let the test run for quite a while, like
overnight,
unless you see errors right away. As for the hard drive,
download a
diagnostic utility from the mftr.'s website. You will
also make a
bootable floppy with that one. If you find all this
hardware testing
difficult, then take the machine to a good local repair
shop (not a
Best Buy or CompUSA type of store). No matter what piece
of hardware is
actually bad, you are going to have to do a format and
clean install.
The current partial installation is hosed.
Post back if you need more help, and good luck.
Malke