xp install reports disk may be damaged

[office politics]

i bought parts for a computer online. I pieced it together and it boots, YAY! I throw in a xp cd and goto install. When I try to create a partition, setup kicks me back to the choose a partition screen w/o the new partition i told it to create. Then, I put in a win98 cd and use fdisk to create a partition. Reboot and start the xp install again. I choose the partition and tell it to format it. Setup tells me it cannot format the partition and that the drive may be damaged.

I installed win98 fine. i ran a via service pack that was provided with the mobo on cd. I have not flashed my bios as i think i have the most current; my post reports date 6-29-2004 just as it does here (mobo pg). I ran scandisk /w surface scan which came up clean.

I also tried to install xp on another drive in the same pc. I had the same problem. I found the drive I just bought on the xp hcl.

ive downloaded and ran maxblast from mator's website to partition and format the drive. however, when xp goes to copy the files to the disk, it errors stating the drive is corrupted.

i also, tried installing 2k but had the same results.

ne ideas as to what I can do?

 

[TheMajor]

Check RAM. Check CD-ROM drive + disc. Try chdsk in recovery console.
Otherwise you're most likely screwed

 

[Chankama]

Check RAM. Check CD-ROM drive + disc. Try chdsk in recovery console.
Otherwise you're most likely screwed

lol.. I can just sense the optimism in your post.

 

[TheMajor]

Haha.

You could also try downclocking your comp a bit.

 

[office politics]

changed spread sprectrum in bios (under frequency/voltage control) to -/+ 3.5v; same problem. swapped in known good memory from the machine i use on a daily basis; same problem. swapped in new cdr drive; same problem. swapped IDE cables; same problem.

mobo? chaintech es-676m

im going to load 98 and flash the bios see if that does anything. i'll run the memtest tonight.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

bad xp cd?

 

[office politics]

im going to test it on another machine today. Instead of flashing the drive and testing memory i ended up copying the xp install files to the HD and trying to run the install. It copied some files but got stuck at a screen saying copying files to hard drive.