XP Repair Copy Errors

[Tony D]

I'm doing an XP Repair. The repair started. It found the installed version of Windows and did its thing. During the installation, it runs into a Copy Error because it can't find the file that it needs to copy on the install CD. I click on BROWSE and sure enough I can see the file on the CD. I double click on it and it returns to the Copy Error window and won't continue. My choices are Retry Cancel and Browse.

 

thoughts?

 

I'm going to try another install CD. (This is a Dell running XP Pro SP-2)

[Dalo Harkin]

Copy errors are normally from bad CD drives or a scratched disk.

[AdvancedSetup]

If you don't have another disk there on hand at the moment you can try cleaning the CD with liquid dish washing soap and a clean soft cloth.

[Tony D]

This is a Dell Dimension 9100 (nice machine). I have several Dell XP Pro install CD's. I tried 2 different CDs on 2 different drives with the same results. After the XP Repair restarts to complete, there are about 30 files that I have to browse to. The files are right there where they should be, but the XP Repair program doesn't recognize them - so I cancel out of each one.

 

I don't have the Dell CD that came with this machine, but I don't think that matters, maybe I'm wrong. The thing I'm not familiar with is the fact that this has a SATA hard drive. I copied the driver onto a floppy and inserted it in the FDD when doing the XP Repair. What bothers me is that it didn't ask me about installing the SATA driver. I did hit F6 when the install drivers prompt came up, but the XP Repair didn't prompt me for anything. Actually it just seemed to ignore the fact that I pressed F6.

 

However, the XP Repair did recognize the Windows installation on the C drive. I've done several XP Repairs before, but this is the first one with a SATA drive. I don't know how much the SATA HD is contributing to the problem.

[AdvancedSetup]

Also, if you have access to another disk from somewhere you may want to try a different one. Microsoft actually stamped some CDs that had invalid IO blocks on them and would not copy some files even on a new CD and CD Drive.

 

It could also be the actual drive you're using. If you have another CD or DVD drive available you could try that as well.

[AdvancedSetup]

Looks like we posted at the same time.

 

From another computer try doing an XCOPY from a DOS prompt of the entire CD and see if you get any errors copying the disk.

 

Choose one of those files and see if you can open it with NOTEPAD directly from the CD, just to see the content and see if it will load.

[Tony D]

I've now tired 3 XP install CD's, including the one that Dell sent yesterday. Additionally, I've tried 2 different CD drives. I'm getting the same results everytime.

 

The XP Repair starts, it gets to the point where the machine restarts. It restarts OK and continues with the XP Repair. At about the 32 minutes remaining part it starts telling me that it can't find a file that it needs. I can see that's it's on the CD in the I386 folder. I click on the file of the same name that it's asking for and the XP Repair install doesn't recognize it as the file it wants. There are about 30 files that it doesn't see.

 

I've copied the I286 folder from the CD to a folder on the C drive. I'm going to do another XP Repair and when it asks for these files, I'll navigate to the folder on the C drive.

[Tony D]

Now that I copied the I386 folder from the XP install CD to the C drive, I tries another XP Repair. When the Copy Error window came up asking for a file that it needed, I navigated to the file on the C drive. However, it still doesn't recognize this a the file it wants.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Sounds like a brand new install is needed Tony.

[RandyL]

Bob is right. Scrub it. Cut your losses.

[Seth]

Probably need a clean install as suggested, but you could also try removing any third party devices for the repair (especially USB and video card).