Help: Can't load OS, HD Controller problem?

[felix367]

Hi All,

I have a recent computer problem that I am having trouble figuring out. My computer is home built and is about 2 years old. The only glitch in that time was a hard drive failure on my boot drive, but a new drive fixed that.

However, my new boot drive just died as well. I got a new drive, figuring it was something like what happened before, just random bad luck. But when I put in the Windows XP disk, it fails to copy some files to the hard drive. I get to the setup screen, it sees the new hard drive, then starts copying files. Then it reports an error saying it can't copy a file to the hard drive. I have the option to retry, skip file, or quit. I've tried all of them.

So, maybe a bad Windows disk, try another disk and get the same problem. Maybe a bad DVD drive, try another DVD drive and get the same problem.

What could this be? Could my MB's HD controller be at fault? Even tried installing to an external USB hard drive and get the same problem. Could it be my optical drive controller?

When I use the Repair mode on the Windows disk, I get a DOS prompt and the hard drives show up fine, and I can view their contents and everything looks OK.

Any suggestions I could try? I thought about getting a HD controller card for my SATA drives, but am not sure if those require that you actually HAVE an OS installed or if they could be used without the OS so you could access the HDs before installing the OS.

Thanks for all your help.

Here are my specs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 2.2GHz Socket 939 Dual-Core Processor Model ADA4400
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard
EVGA 256-P2-N517-AX GeForce 7800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI
WD 500 GB HD

[Cricket]

Did you replace the SATA cable when you replaced the hard drive? If not, try another SATA cable.

Cricket

[felix367]

Originally Posted by Cricket Did you replace the SATA cable when you replaced the hard drive? If not, try another SATA cable. Cricket

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that a try when I get home. I did try to load Windows to an external HD attached via USB and got the same issue.

[felix367]

Just to update those that might be interested, one of my memory sticks was bad. Popped in my copy of Ultimate Boot CD and ran memtest 86+ and discovered the problem. Pulled it out and was able to install Windows just fine.