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Skinnz

Hey guys,

Hopefully you guys can help me out a bit. I bought a keyboard and DL'd the software this weeekend. Well i guess the install didn't agree with my computer so it started giving me some vid problems while i was gaming. I had a fresh new Windows XP Pro edition (legit) just laying there so i decided why not install it and start new.

When I started installing it first off i wanted to delete everything on my drive so i figured instead of upgrade go for the reinstall option thinking that it would just erase my old OS and start with this one. It actually made the pro version a 2nd OS on that drive. It erased some system files from the old OS and when it started to try and copy files the error came up. Cannot copy file (bootvid.?) giving me option to abort, retry, or ignore. I tried everyone and when I did the ignore it basically does that to every file. So stuck on puttin pro on that drive.

I have a 2nd SATA hard drive so I figured why not just put the OS on that one. I disable the old hard drive and tried to boot from the new one and couldn't due to some couldn't find some NS?? something error. Figuring that it had something to due with the hard drive itself not having the right boot functions I plugged the old hard drive back in. Soooo, I went to install the Pro version on the SATA drive. It let me format the drive and then got as far as getting to the whole cannot copy file error just like the other one.

Needless to say this has become much bigger problem than I thought. Never had a problem just reinstalling windows before. My question is this...How do I get my fresh copy of XP Pro on one of these hard drives (old one preferrably) and get the rest of the drive and my SATA drive clean? I know there are a couple options and i would like to hear from you guys cause you obviously know much more than I. Sorry for the long post

Specs:
1gig ram
3.2 Pent 4 EE
1 60gig 5400 rpm old *** hard drive
1 120 gig 7200 SATA maxtor Drive
1 Plextor CD drive
1 Plextor DVDR/W
Radeon 9800xt vid card

Bluefish

Hi Skinnz!
Welcome to PC Help Forum!

How have you tried to install XP?
The best way is to boot from your XP Cd-Rom.
That will let you easily format your drive too.

Bluefish

radar

Hi Skinnz,

I have seen this error occasionally and there are a few causes that you need to look into.

check that your cdrom is ok, it might not be reading correctly, the ide cable is plugged in properly.
check the CD itself for scratches, also to make sure it works put it into a working pc, it should come up with a window asking if you want to installl windows components etc.
run the memtest from here http://www.memtest86.com/
check in your BIOS that the SATA drive is set to run in IDE mode, not RAID as I have had problems installing like this
Take out all the PCI etc cards that you don't need before installing

Let us know what your hard drives are so we can find some diags for them
All the best