Error encountered installing XP Pro..

[ChfTx]

Compaq, P4, 2.4MHz, 256RAM, Maxtor 40GigHD

While installing XP pro an error message appears and reads as follows.."An error has been encountered that prevents set-up from continuing. One of the componants couldn't be installed.
Data Error (Cyclic Redundancy Check)
Try cleaning the disk...."

It's a new disk, but I cleaned it anyway and always get the same error message during instalation..

I previously had Win98se installed on the hard drive, but formated it into 2 partions. I'm putting XP on the 15Gig partition.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!!

 

[Katzy]

I would suspect an incompatible piece of hardware.

 

[ChfTx]

Thanks Katzy


I don't understand what hardware could be incompatible. Could you please elaborate.

Also, I forgot to mention that I've already been to the MS site and tried to troubleshoot from there. There was information, but none of cleared up my trouble. The last thing on the list was to replace the hard drive. Sooooooo I've also run a scan on my Maxtor hard drive and found no problems so I don't see the point in replacing it.

 

[Firah]

Could be a RAM problem. Reseat the RAM or change it out.

 

[crjdriver]

When you have a "problem" install, check the ram with a ram tester. Here is a link to mtest86. If the ram tests ok [and you have already checked the hd] I would try the install with just one hd, one cd drive, ram and video card. Disconnect any printers, scanners, any usb devices, and pull any other pci cards like sound, nic, etc. Now try the install.

Post back if you still have problems; we can try installing from the hd.

 

[ChfTx]

The RAM was just fine before I tried this install. I'll check to make sure. There's only one HD and one CD drive and no pci cards, printers, etc hooked up. Just the bare bones.

 

[Sequal7]

Have you run the maxtor disk utility to correctly format your HDD?

If not, give it a try, it is called MaxBlast HDD utility, from Maxtor, Downlaod and run it (bootable a: disk) before retrying install of windowsXP


http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...tware Downloads/ATA Hard Drives&downloadID=58

 

[crjdriver]

I take it that one of your partitions is fat32. You can copy your i386 folder from the xp cd to the hd using a win9x boot disk. You will also need a copy of smartdrv.exe [smart drive] You can put this on the boot disk or in the i386 folder.

Boot with your boot disk and run smart drive. Now change to the i386 folder and type "winnt" without quotes. This will start the install.

Note if you have problems copying the i386 folder, that points at a bad cd drive, bad ide cable, or perhaps a bad CD disk.

 

[crjdriver]

Have you run the maxtor disk utility to correctly format your HDD?

If not, give it a try, it is called MaxBlast HDD utility, from Maxtor, Downlaod and run it (bootable a: disk) before retrying install of windowsXP


http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...tware Downloads/ATA Hard Drives&downloadID=58

There is no need for any partitioning / formatting software. All partitioning and formatting is done from xp setup.

 

[ChfTx]

I used power max to check my hd only. I formatted the hd originally using a win98 boot disk and defined 2 partitions before I even pugged in the XP disk as I didn't know not to. XP reformatted both partitions for me before running the installation.

I'm currently don't have a computer at home to get online with, but I hope to have one up and running by tonight....might speed this proccess along a bit.

Couple questions, what is smartdrv.exe (Smart Drive) and where do I find it?
In regards to MaxBlast utility and Power Max, are we talking about the same thing? I don't think so.

 

[crjdriver]

Smart drive is a dos disk cache program. It makes the install go much faster; without it the install will take hours. Do a google search for smart drive; there are many places to download it.

Yes, I believe those are the same thing.

 

[ChfTx]

New developement....

I decided I needed an OS on my machine to be able to really check it out so I went to re-install Win98 (not sure if that was the correct assumption, but I figured it couldn't hurt). After install, while Win98 was booting up for the first time, "searching for and installing plug and play devices" I recieved this error message: "While initializing device NDIS Windows Protection Error. You need to restart......" So I did, and it happened again, same error message..?!
If you remember the original post, I had previously installed this version of Windows on this machine but with a different HD. The current HD I've verified w/ PowerMax is the one I'm using now.

I'm a bit stumped, any thoughts?

Note to crjdriver: I spent some time looking for smart drive unsuccesfully, but I will keep at it as I still want to get XPpro installed but I thought I'd better explore the hardware problem a bit further first. Thanks

Thanks, as usual for your time and knowledge!

 

[crjdriver]

Here is a link. It is down near the bottom of the page; you will see "smartdrv.exe" just click on it and you can download smart drive.