can't install W2K due to copy errors

[viverra]

hi everyone

I have an Asus P4G8X Deluxe motherboard, Intel Celeron 2,8 GHz processor and a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 (6E030L0 510201) 30 GB hard drive. I bought the mb, the processor and one 256 MB DIMM module about two months ago (so it's all new and presumably working). The entire configuration was running smoothly for about three weeks, then I started getting startup blue screens about registry corruption and soon afterwards the OS collapsed. To this day, I haven't managed to install it again.

The installation always halts on copy errors (lots of them - if I skip files, I get tens of them). I tried not just W2K, but also WXP and even W98, but none of that brought any success (which rules out the possibility of having faulty install disks). Then I suspected my hd, so I tried to install to another (8 GB WD 84AA), but with the same (negative) result. I checked both disks with W2K recovery console's chkdsk /r and in both cases I found that "the drive contains one or more unrecoverable errors", which I don't think is true. I updated BIOS to the latest version. Then I heard that my problem could be solved by using external hd controller driver during the installation. Not quite sure which one to choose, I tried two

http://www.asus.com/pub/asus/misc/ide/cmd648.zip

and

http://www.asus.com/pub/asus/misc/ide/iidewx.zip

but nothing changed. I have no clue about what to do next. Any help is highly appreciated, thanks a lot!

[BigStu]

I would suggest using a more reliable program to test the drives. WD and Maxtor release utilities to check drives with. For Maxtor download the power max utility and for WD download WD Data Lifeguard tools. They perform a better check on the drive and will tell you if there are any problems with the drive.

BigStu

[viverra]

Thanks, I will, but before that I will try to use yet another harddisk. I still think it's quite improbable for both drives to be bad. Any other suggestions, please?

[BigStu]

Try another CD-ROM maybe.. Make sure it isnt goin bad. All I can think of.

BigStu

[viverra]

the cdrom is out of question. most of the time, i try installing from my hd. results are perfectly the same no matter if i install from cd or hd.

i think my problem is something like bios settings for the hd or i need a hd controller driver. today i tried to disable all of the advanced bios disk features - i disabled udma and set PIO to 0. no progress achieved...

the other day i even checked voltage. sadly, it was alright and yet again i had to look for a solution elsewhere

i am beyond desperation

[Murray S.]

Howdy:

Have you tried disabling the onboard (BIOS) antivirus program??

Murray

[apache]

Hi there
what you need to do if you do have another pc try and install the HDD on the other pc and try and install the OS see whether you get the same problem than you know it's definitely the HDD that is gone or corrupted, because if you picked up a virus some viruses can kill the hard disk.

Another thing if you could replicate the error message and post it here please, it could give us some indication where the problem might be, from the description so far of the blue screen it's 75% of the time hardware related issue.

and if you have pc cillin enabled in the motherboard try and disable it because pc cilling is a pain in the neck.

if you can install it on another machine that means you need to get your Mobo checked out or the bios. but i doubt it.

post back please and good luck !!!

[viverra]

Trying to install on another machine is a good idea, thank you. I did not try it yet, but what I did try was introducing a hard disk number three (20 GB WD) into the story. I messed around with bios for a while:

SDRAM CAS latency: default 2T, changed to 2.5T
SDRAM RAS to CAS delay: default 2T, changed to 3T
SDRAM RAS precharge delay: default 2T, changed to 3T
SDRAM active precharge delay: default 5T, changed to 7T
SDRAM idle timer: default 16T, unchanged

I also reduced Graphics Aperture Size to the minimum of 4 MB and elevated DDR voltage from 2,5 V to 2,7 V. Then I disabled all of the advanced functions on the HD (disabled multi-sector transfers and udma and set PIO to 0). The boot-up virus protection has already been disabled for a long time.

I commenced the installation using Intel Ultra ATA Controller Driver and I got past the first restart, selected a partition to install to and during "checking disk" I learned that "drive C: is corrupted and cannot be repaired".

Now, what is the probability of three disks going bad, if they performed flawlessly a month ago and the third one was never a part of the system that ceased to function? I am pretty sure the disks are not the cause of my suffering.

I intend to try out a different RAM module. As for the error messages I am getting, they are plain "setup was unable to copy..." things. I am not getting blue screens anymore, that was happening when the previous working installation was falling down.

And No I don't have PC Cillin. I even had to find out what that is.

thanks for suggestions!