Win XP Prof installation Question

[Alt-Del]

Hope someone can help.

Installing XP prof. on a new SATA Hitachi 250GIG is proving to be
impossible!!


During installation, I get error messages that Setup cannot copy the
file cmprops.dl_, many other files. Now I know these files are on the
cd i386 directory but the setup simply refuses to see them.


Googling shows a lot of people have had this problem and as ususal
with windows, the people that have managed to resolve it report many
different solutions!


One solution is that there could be a problem with the HD master boot
record. I suspect that this might be my problem. When I run the
setup,
the total disk space shown is 238473MB. Is this the correct value for
a 250gig drive? If not how can I delete the hidden partition?


All help greatly received.


Cheers

 

[Shaun]

That is the correct value.

 

[Alt-Del]

Thanks for the reply.

However I have also just noticed that the option to format the HD in
FAT32 is also missing from the option list. Is this because the HD has
been formatted previously in NTFS or is the MBR the problem. is so,
how can I delete the MBR, I have tries the recovery FIXMBR without
success.


Cheers

 

[Alias]

Thanks for the reply.

However I have also just noticed that the option to format the HD in
FAT32 is also missing from the option list. Is this because the HD has
been formatted previously in NTFS or is the MBR the problem. is so,
how can I delete the MBR, I have tries the recovery FIXMBR without
success.


Cheers

I use the floppie(s) that you can get from the hard drive manufacturer's
web site to update the MBR, format and partition the drive. YMMV.

Alias

 

[Alt-Del]

Snip >

Update:

Thanks for your help.

I have just managed to successfully intallthe OS by removing one of
the memory modules.

Very strange.


Cheers

 

[Alias]

Update:

Thanks for your help.

I have just managed to successfully intallthe OS by removing one of
the memory modules.

Very strange.


Cheers

Sounds like a defective memory stick.

Alias

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hope someone can help.

Installing XP prof. on a new SATA Hitachi 250GIG is proving to be
impossible!!

It may be that WinXP doesn't include drivers to support your
specific SATA controller. Try this:

Very early in the boot process, just after having booted from the
WinXP CD, the screen will display the words to the effect: "Setup is
examining your system." Press <F6> when this happens, and have the
*manufacturer's* WinXP-specific drivers for your SATA controller
available on a floppy disk.

During installation, I get error messages that Setup cannot copy the
file cmprops.dl_, many other files. Now I know these files are on the
cd i386 directory but the setup simply refuses to see them.

Problems copying files or corrupted files during installation are
most often caused by defective, incompatible, or sub-standard hardware;
in order of likelihood, either RAM, the hard drive, or the motherboard.
On very rare occasions the CD drive or installation CD is the problem.

Start with testing the RAM. You might try MemTest86:
http://www.memtest86.com/ It's free. Then you can download and use the
hard drive maufacturer's diagnostic utility to test the hard drive. If
both RAM and hard drive test out clean, check with the motherboard
manufacturer for any diagnostic utilities.

Googling shows a lot of people have had this problem and as ususal
with windows, the people that have managed to resolve it report many
different solutions!


One solution is that there could be a problem with the HD master boot
record. I suspect that this might be my problem. When I run the
setup,
the total disk space shown is 238473MB. Is this the correct value for
a 250gig drive? If not how can I delete the hidden partition?

That's the correct value (and even if it weren't, it wouldn't indicate
a problem with the MBR.) WinXP, like other operating systems, measures
kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes as:

1 Kb = 1024 bytes
1 Mb = 1024 Kb = 1,048,576 bytes
1 Gb = 1024 Mb = 1,073,741,824 bytes

However, a common marketing ploy used by hard drive manufacturers
to make their products seem a bit larger than they really are is to
assign the value of an even 1,000,000,000 bytes to the gigabyte.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Thanks for the reply.

However I have also just noticed that the option to format the HD in
FAT32 is also missing from the option list. Is this because the HD has
been formatted previously in NTFS or is the MBR the problem. is so,
how can I delete the MBR, I have tries the recovery FIXMBR without
success.

Again, you've not presented any particular reason to think that you've
a problem with the MBR.

By design, WinXP cannot create and format a new partition greater than
32 Gb. This is because NTFS is the superior file system, and not nearly
as wasteful of drive space. If you make a FAT32 partition larger than 8
Gb, you're "throwing away" significant amounts of storage capacity.
However, the OS has no problems being installed upon or otherwise using
FAT32 a partition larger than 32 GB, as long as that partition has been
created/formatted by another OS, such as Win98.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Alt-Del]

Snip>

Thanks for the informing and comprehensive respons.

The main components of my new build are:

ASUS M2V AM2 HD
Athlon 64 X2 3800 CPU
Hitachi SATA 250gig
2 x 512 Corsair DDR2 667
450W psu
7600GT VGA

The memory is Corsair value ram and has passed test by memtest86.

The mother board is a cheap ASUS and it could be the problem but I
have already have successfully installed XP on an old 40GIG ATA drive
and the system has been rock solid now for over a week.

The idea about the SATA drive seems to be the most likely answer as
although I did manage to install XP yesterday, it just is not stable
as I get various error messages in XP and slow response time.

I will have to re-install and will follow your SATA driver
installation suggestion.

If all fails, I have a mind to leave tha ata as primary HD and use the
sata as data disk.

Any other thoughts are also gratefully received.


Cheers