stumped by invalid Windows XP system image

[Jeremy]

SHORT VERSION:
I'm clean installing WinXP home edition. During the file
copy stage, the install program posts errors about
copying files over from the cd to the hard drive. The
text of these error messages says "the file Setup placed
on your hard drive is not a valid Windows XP system
image."

LONG VERSION (which includes the steps I have taken to
fix this situation):
This computer belongs to a relative. I built it for
him a year ago and installed WinXP home edition on it.
This summer, he says he got a virus and a "friend" of his
diagnosed the problem as a faulty hard drive. So my
relative bought a new hard drive. This "friend" was
unable to reinstall WinXP, so he instead installed
Win98. Tons of problems in the months since this all
happened, so I offered to step in and get WinXP back into
operation (and *cough* get my relative back on the legal
side of a license).
I wanted to do a clean install, so I'm booting from the
WinXP cd and following the instructions there.
Initially, the install would blue screen with a message
about an unrecoverable corruption on the hard drive. So
I wondered....is it possible this new hard drive is
defective? I went to the manufacturor's website (Maxtor)
and downloaded the diagnostic tool they provide there
(downloaded on my own computer). The hard drive passed
each test, including a full low-level format of the
entire hard drive (zeros written over entire drive).
I tried to install WinXP again and did a complete NTFS
format of the hard drive (entire 80gb as a single
partition). So far so good. But after the "making a
list of files to be copied" stage, I started getting
the "could not copy file x" that I described above. (A
variety of files effected...didn't seem to have any
pattern to it, but tcpip.sys was one that sticks out in
my memory.)
I checked the cd...yep, scratches. So I pulled out my
own WinXP home edition cd to try an install from that
instead. Now my version is the "upgrade" version, so I
also pulled out my old Win98 disk. My WinXP disk has no
discernable scratches.
Same problem. I even tried again, this time
reformating the entire hard drive once more, in case the
WinXP full edition install attempt had written something
there that prevented my WinXP upgrade edition from using
this "image."

I am completely stumped by this problem. This is the
same computer that ran WinXP home edition all year long,
with the exception of a new hard drive. I do not believe
this is a hard drive problem or a problem reading the
installation disks. But I haven't a clue what to do
next. I've been browsing through this newsgroup for
help, but I just don't see anything even remotely like
this. Any suggestions you may have I would appreciate.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Jeremy;
Are you sure it is not the CD drive?

Try a Clean Installation this way.
Disconnect all peripherals (camera, printer, scanner, etc)
Disconnect network/modem cable.
Go to BIOS and set CDROM as boot device before hard drive.
Insert Windows XP CD and reboot.
At "Press any key to boot to CDROM" quickly press a key and follow the
prompts for a Clean installation:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
Delete all partitions in step 5 if you desire to erase all data on the
hard drive.
Partitioning and formatting will be done automatically.
All data will be destroyed, back-up important data first.

Enable or install firewall BEFORE connecting network cable.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=283673

Install ALL Critical Windows Updates:
Start/All Programs/Windows Update

After you are finished, you will need to load the appropriate drivers.

 

[D.Currie]

My guesses would be that the cd rom drive is having issues reading the
drive. If you have a spare one, try that. Also try new cables for the cd rom
and for the hard drive.

 

[Jeremy]

UPDATE:

Based on the advise offerered here, I decided to buy a
new CD rom drive and see if that fixed the problem.
While in Staples, however, I got talking to the
technician there and found they would do a diagnosis for
only $20. So I left it with them.

They said the cd-rom drive was performing correctly. The
problem was not the XP disk itself. The problem also was
not the hard drive. The technician suggested the BIOS
for the motherboard might need to be updated to handle
XP. I told him this same motherboard and BIOS had run XP
for over a year without problem. He wondered if someone
had accidentally flashed the BIOS. This seems extremely
unlikely to me. He then suggested a computer virus could
have flashed the BIOS and that I should reflash it.

Um, is that possible? And if possible, is it likely to
be the cause of the troubles here? I brought it home
from Staples. One last ditch thing I'll try, before
attempting a BIOS flash, is to swap out the cables from
the board to the cd-rom drive. Other than these two
steps, which I do not hold much faith in, I don't know
what else to try.

 

[D.Currie]

UPDATE:

Based on the advise offerered here, I decided to buy a
new CD rom drive and see if that fixed the problem.
While in Staples, however, I got talking to the
technician there and found they would do a diagnosis for
only $20. So I left it with them.

They said the cd-rom drive was performing correctly. The
problem was not the XP disk itself. The problem also was
not the hard drive. The technician suggested the BIOS
for the motherboard might need to be updated to handle
XP. I told him this same motherboard and BIOS had run XP
for over a year without problem. He wondered if someone
had accidentally flashed the BIOS. This seems extremely
unlikely to me. He then suggested a computer virus could
have flashed the BIOS and that I should reflash it.

And aliens could be infesting it, too. Sounds like the tech spent all the
time he could afford for $20 and now he's taking wild guesses.

Um, is that possible? And if possible, is it likely to
be the cause of the troubles here? I brought it home
from Staples. One last ditch thing I'll try, before
attempting a BIOS flash, is to swap out the cables from
the board to the cd-rom drive. Other than these two
steps, which I do not hold much faith in, I don't know
what else to try.

Cables are a cheap fix, and they can cause the sort of problems you're
having. You could also try copying the CD to the hard drive, and installing
from there.

 

[zkit18]

Check your RAM

I had this same problem and started swapping out things one at a time.
the CDs,
then the IDE Cables,
then the CD-ROM Drive,
then the one that fixed was the RAM. I had a bad RAM Stick. I'm guessing it was corrupting the files being copied to the HDD so it was messing with the install. After I replaced the crappy RAM, it ran smoothly.