A couple of things to remember wheninstalling XP.

[morriswindgate]

After doing several computers running XP I have found a couple of things to remember.
If, during the install, you get a stop error after the hard drive is scanned for errors, you have a stick of RAM causing the problem. This will be the case even though the machine boots and the POST show no problems.
If you are using two or more optical drives (CD-RW, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or DVD-RW) as soon as you get the OS loaded go into the device manager. Under the properties for the IDE Channels select the Advanced Tab and make sure both drivers are selected for DMA Mode if Available. In almost all of the installs I have done the Master will be DMA but the Slave will be PIO.
If you keep having an optical drive disappear, go in to the Device manager and under the drive that is disappearing, uncheck the Digital Playback box.

[fatboyjim]

Some things there I have noticed too, especially the DMA for slave drives

Thanks for the info on the bad RAM, that's happened as well on machines I've tried to install on. What is the STOP error you get exactly or is it random for bad RAM at this time in the install process?

Thanks again,

Jim

[morriswindgate]

The Stop error I am talking about will come in right after the hard drive is scanned for errors during the install. It will mention stuff like disabling RAM cache.

[fatboyjim]

OK, thanks

[tigstah]

i've got a stop error now on a system that i am doing an xp install on. i am going undo the partitions to make one drive again and reformat and then reinstall......but before i do that i will check all the ram......