Trouble installing Windows on a new HD.

hey guys! I haven’t given up- just been busy trying all of your suggestions! I think I have had luck - I installed a xp cd from a friend (on the USB drive by the way) and it loaded with no file errors but when I got to entering my key it isn’t accepting it! I thought you said I could use any disk just my own licence number??? ---the thing is asking for my (friends) key off a yellow sticker…. But my key is on a blue holographic sticker?? Does this mean one of us (her) had the wrong set of disks???? This is consuming so much of my time and I really do appreciate all of the time you have all put into helping me! I can only hope that this thread will help others as well! Maybe their problems wont be as difficult as mine and the quality suggestions will work for them !!! hahahahhaha we can live in hope eh!

I'm not really sure what happens now, but what I've read here at TS is that you can call the 1-800-M$ number and explain your copy is damaged blah blah blah and you installed from another disk, they will issue you an new #. Others here can give you more detail of the procedure I'm sure, stay tuned.

Just to clarify your fix though: By using the 2nd (known good) XP CD AND using the external USB CD drive you were able to install XP no problems? Did you have to reformat/partition? (I'm pretty sure you did).
So it really seems to have been a bad disk and maybe, also, probably a bad on-board CD drive? (God this was a long thread. :haha: )

Take care and please stay tune for the final answer,
Cheers.

Dear kirock,
yes I am hoping that my problems are fixed - I did delete the partition and repartition and format the drive using fat32 as was suggested - luckily the laptop does recognise and use the USB cd drive without needing drivers ....

but until I get a key that works and get further into the installtion I cannot be sure it is all good- as I did get to this point and a little further once before- I have literally tried over a dozen times and got to various stages of success and failure !

So if you all do not give up on me I will let you know how it goes with my phone calls to MS - just waiting for their phones to be online here in AUS....

Hdd

I had also a problem like yours. I bought a brand new 160 GB WD S-Ata HDD and went throught the steps of partitioning, formatting and when I tried to install the system at 12% always said that my cd is not good and advised to change the cd because is scratched and so one, but the cd was good.

I have tried with another copy of the disk and all was the same.

I installed systems on other computers with the suposed scratched cd.

Finally I concluded that the brand new HDD is faulty and I took it back.

The men from the computer company, verified it, too
He reached the same conclusion.
He sent the HDD all way back to factory and had changed my faulty HDD.

Perhaps after you check your memory, CD-ROM Drive, check the HDD, too.

Good luck in your quest for the futureh

HELLO ALL YOU WONDERFULL TS ANGELS!! GUESS WHAT !?!?!?!

IT WORKS

I have been dancing a little jig!

Now, before you all go I do have a couple more things you could all help with??

If you don’t mind that is…….

When I installed there were three files it said it cold not copy;

Mdwmdmsp.dll
Nikedrv.sys
Snmpcon.chm

How might i go about copying these to the hard drive now??? As windows seems a little unstable - I have had a couple of error messages on each reboot - such as CTF loader error etc…..

Last thing I cant figure out is I have no sound…..

I installed the music software that came with the laptop but still none- I will get straight off here onto HP but not holding my breath that that will help me so if there is another alternative post it up!


+++++++ for TS help!

+++ for MS phone operator who was most helpful in my dilemma

--- for HP for their unhelpful, unconcerned attitude and especially for their convoluted website!

A very happy (yet somewhat apprehensive) Katey-Lou

Good stuff, now it just sounds like you've got some sound card drivers to install. I'll check the model of your machine from your first post and see if I can't find the URL to download them from for you (you'll probably need a whole load of other drivers, but they should be available from the same source).

Just to clear up the whole restore partition thing we were debating. I'm currently using a HP laptop which we purchased a year ago along with another 17 of the same model. I did the install on them all and I did it my way. Before that we prepared three suites of 18 laptops each the year before. Same thing there.

First thing you can try is open the run command line, Start/Run and type this:
sfc /scannow (there is a space before the /). Have your XP cd handy.

I found this info on 2 of the files, I'll keep looking for the third one:
mdwmdmsp.dll; (company name RioPort)WMDM Service Provider driver for WMDM Drivers
Download

info on file mdwmdmsp.dll
Info

download for Nikedrv.sys
S3/Diamond Multimedia Systems
File Description: NikeDrv Usb Driver USB

Getting close!
Cheers.

I got sound!
I went to HP and downloaded an update from them and the installation said it failed but when I reboooted I had sound! so happy!
the installation of updates/drivers/patches from HP all seem to freeze halfway through as does installing Office 2003 (genuine)--- so I am off to try Kirocks latest suggestions!
at this point the thing is a little ustable but on!
I am feeling tempted to use the HP recovery CD (it has a 3 disk restore set for when you have nothng and a 1 disk recovery to reset to "factory settings" if you mucked anything up with adding/removing programs?) what do you all think???
I feel a bit worried about using it now that I am so close to having it all working in case it crashes the system or sets me back.........

That sounds like a good idea. I mean even if it causes everything to fall over again you know how to get to where you're at at the moment. With laptops it's often a chore to find the right driver files and if you can get the restore to run you're likely to have a much more stable setup afterwards.
Bear in mind that the restore disks are likely to contain all the drivers you need, so before you go doing a restore, you may want to try targeting your hardware installs to the cd-rom drive. It's also likely that HP have packaged the drivers in cabinet files or the like however so it may not work.

Kirok;
Your questions reflect exactly what I have experienced over a number of reloads on Laptops.I cannot give you the technical ways in which each brand (manufacturer's) use these setup programs to protect their market only that it is there.For example an old Tecra that a friend asked me to reload without the original setup disks.I had to use the download(Setup) Program(loaded on a 98 Boot disk) to boot the Laptop via it's Docking station.Then partition the HDD with this same Program (It created the small Partition Automatically and loaded itself on the HDD) I then had to use the Setup program(on the HDD) to start the O/S load (Retail Microsoft CD) to get a successful install of Windows.
This whole procedure was Automatically done months later by a System disk this friend finally received from Tecra.We reloaded again with this disk because there were odd missing files (mostly DLL's and INI 's ) that would continue to crop up.The System disk load did not have these issues.
My own HP will not run USB drives without problems unless the drivers are installed VIA the Setup program.
OEM's can add there own files (this is their licensed right) they do this for a reason. You can bet their reasons do not involve the end user's interests First.
I believe windows install CD's(Microsoft) cannot cover every machine configuration on the Planet.When it comes to LTP's I believe these CD's simply don't know what to install without some direction ( The OEM Setup program does this )


I would ask Kate.. to post her HDD layout to see if that partition exists if it is not there then I believe it illustrates the point.The issues she is having is not the norm.
I would suggest that if the USB HDD was able to load the O/S ,she should re-install with the setup disks . If they are floppys , she can make a bootable cd with the files on them , and boot with the USB drive., It sounds like she was able to boot to the LTP with it.
I know she has had a frustrating time , however in the long run her machine's best opportunity to run well, will entail being loaded the way it was Designed.
Like it or not.

Might seem crazy to some of you, but I've had problems completing XP installs when booting from CD. I found using the XP boot disks which may be found on the XP homepage for download fixed the problem. It's been a while though, so I'm not absalutely sure what the problems I was having were. They may have been the same, though it's a vague reccolection and I may be wrong. It can't hurt to give it a shot. You'll need a floppy drive for it though.

LiquidLen, not wishing to cause offence, but I fail to see how necessitating restore disks to install a functioning OS on a laptop can in any way benefit a company, save in two cases:

1. Said restore disks must be purchased back from the company if they're lost, or if the end user bought their machine from some unscrupulous high-street chain store (PC World - Why in the world).
2. Said company has an agreement with Microsoft to make it nigh on impossible to install a non-windows OS like Linux.
This is HP we're talking about, not Fujitsu, or some other bargain basement camera manufacturer who's got a few chips from Intel and stuck them in nice packaging. They may (like all large businesses) be less than scrupulous, but they have a large number of business and pro customers who might not take to kindly to such practices and would find themselves competing with apple.

Also, just one more thing. As I have experienced trouble booting with USB drives (bar floppy drives that is) I can sympathise, but the symptoms KateyLou describes don't suggest that.

Lekki...
I am not easily offended;
I can think of a lot of reasons why Manufacturer's INSIST upon their Setup programs being installed.The main reason is......
$$$$$$$$$$$
One of the largest after Sale Costs to them is Tech support/Warranty. Standardizing Installs and limiting what end users can customize on LTPs saves them a ton of money.
As for Linux; I doubt if Manufacturers care if you want to TRY and load it on their LTP's, go ask the boys here at the Alternate Forum. You would have to be a very good Power user capable of writing a lot of software to pull it off successfully.
Linux portables have just started hitting the market from companies as a reaction to It's(linux) increase in popularity. BTW these LTPs have a setup program also.
The bottom line is that these Setup programs are Built in and they ultimately make it simpler to own and operate LTPs.You can load an O/S without them ,but not without difficulties.
Why bother?

All you guys have missed the point here. I will tell you what has actually happened, how it happened, and what is now happening. In going in to remove the hard drive, you have either not taken proper antistatic precautions, and your built up static travelled through the pc and damaged the RAM module or out of curiousity you actually touched or removed the ram. Either way static damage.

It is very easy to assumed because you are having read or write errors it has anything to do with either of the drives. While you are loading windows, the cdrom is reading the files bloody fast, the hard drive is also writting very fast. But because the hard drive is writting not only the file, but also its registry entries, creating directories for the file, etc, it starts to lag behind the cdrom. But the cdrom does not stop for the hard drive, the computer sees this and starts putting the files into cache memory, which is actually made up of most of your RAM, because it is not being used for much hard computing at this time.

Now your problem starts here. The files have been written safely to cache. A temporary FAT table is created of the files in cache. The hard drive catches up at last. It reads the temporary FAT for the next file to write and the location of that file in cache. It looks for it but can't find it because either the FAT files is partially unreadable or the location is mis-written. Either way you get the error "Cannot Read File ????? from Cd" or Cannot Write ???? File".

So you are furiuosly reformatting your hard drive, buying new drives, or looking for new cds. All to no avail. The next time you try reloading, you get faults with a whole new set of files, because the errors are random with the faulty memory. Even if you end up finishing the install, it will start crashing all over the shop. When you installed via USB cdrom, you may get less errors because the data transfer rates via the USB is much slower than an imbedded cdrom in the ide channel. So the hard drive does not lag behind so much. You may only get a few files missing.

But your problem is still underlying. What you now have is an unreliable computer. Little errors here and there. The occasional hanging or taking too long to shut down. The odd rebooting while starting windows. Am I right or wrong?

Change the ram module. You can download a very small memory test programme and test the ram in a your computer. The ram will fail read/ write test. I ran a repair shop for 12 years.

RAM always seems to rear it's ugly head when you've got a bit of a chestnut. Hard to be sure from mem-tests that it's true though. If it comes out consistently clean then you should try replacing the RAM with a brand new stick. If it doesn't pass of course you know what's wrong. Regardless, please post an update on your progress here so we can see how it went.

thanks everyone!

Dear Lekki Sheep and all ts helpers,

Alas life takes hold and the computer has been pushed to the back burner by pressing issues of family in poor health and many nights spent by a hospital bedside!

Silver has a point about static and I may try to download this ram checking software….

If / when I get to it…. I will let you guys know any outcome

I am ashamed to say I’m really ready for giving it to some friendly computer tech at my local who offered an exchange for a new dvd burner for this ol’ PC, he can then fix or dump it!

My knowledge has been expended through this ordeal but I am still not really up to speed.

Nevertheless, I sincerely hope that my questions and all of your subsequent answers may have helped another ts newbie out there too!