build/repair question

[WhatHi]

I am at the out of ideas on how to proceed with my problem. Any help would be appreciated. The problem I am having is this: My gf's parents' mb fried, and so I am trying to help by putting in a new mb, ps, memory, and cpu. I want to use their old hd to keep cost down, even though it is IDE. I have tried 3 different copies of windows, including the one I used on my last build. Every time I try to install it, I get a message that a file was not copied or is corrupted, and then the setup stops. I tried to boot the system with my hd installed, and got another fatal error. What would be the first step to diagnosing the problem? Could it be the memory, or possibly the mb itself? As I said, I am out of ideas, and would appreciate any input. My first build went smoothly, and so I don't have any idea as to where I should even start looking. Thanks again.

[flanzig1]

The OS install is probably fighting with the OS on the old HD. The best thing to do is connect the HD to a working computer and copy all the files they need. Then format the HD and try a clean install of Windows,drivers, and programs.

[Cricket]

I would try replacing the existing IDE cable with a new one.

Try another optical drive.

Test the RAM with Memtest86+.

Test the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic utility.

Cricket