[Broni]

Manual: http://www.geekstogo...ws-XP-t138.html

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Well, the whole booting from the CD thing has finished and I am asked to restart the computer.

I changed the boot sequence so as to boot with the "Onboard SATA Hard Drive"
Then enter the Windows Media Center option mentioned earlier.

Now, the Setup, not the Windows Setup with the DOS-style font and things, I mean the one with the installation and stuff --> Windows Installation is beginning, it says that "An error has been encountered that prevents Setup from continuing. Setup failed to install the product catalogs. This is a fatal error. The setup log files should contain more information. Press OK to view the SEtup log file."

[Midnighter]

Well, the whole booting from the CD thing has finished and I am asked to restart the computer.

I changed the boot sequence so as to boot with the "Onboard SATA Hard Drive"
Then enter the Windows Media Center option mentioned earlier.

Now, the Setup, not the Windows Setup with the DOS-style font and things, I mean the one with the installation and stuff --> Windows Installation is beginning, it says that "An error has been encountered that prevents Setup from continuing. Setup failed to install the product catalogs. This is a fatal error. The setup log files should contain more information. Press OK to view the SEtup log file."

[Broni]

I changed the boot sequence so as to boot with the "Onboard SATA Hard Drive"

Why?
Please, read the manual...

Step 3: Boot from your Windows XP CD. Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer. When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD. Can't boot from your CD? Please see the note at the bottom of this page (Configuring Your Computer to Boot from CD)

Edited by Broni, 22 June 2009 - 10:25 PM.

[Midnighter]

I have already tried booting from the CD before and have been receiving the same results.
Every single time, after the finishing the last step, "Repair selected Window XP installation", it starts the "true" set-up (first time installation screen) thing and does not ask for a CD-Key. It immediately starts installing windows. The installation is then interrupted by the error message mentioned earlier.

OR

It is interrupted by some other type of error, like being unable to find a i386 file or something.

Am I doing something wrong after or during the setup?

*Note (You most probably know this, but just clearing it up):
Onboard SATA Hard drive = booting from Hard drive
Onboard USB or CD-ROM = CD-ROM
Onboard Floppy = Floppy...

Edited by Midnighter, 25 June 2009 - 07:34 PM.

[Broni]

Why is CD drive not listed as first booting device?

[Midnighter]

I did put it as the first booting device, but I had changed it because after booting from the CD and finishing the setup, an error interrupted (this is WITH the CD). When I changed the booting sequence to the Hard Drive first, the "true" setup Windows Installation screen still shows but is interrupted by an error as well

Mind you, this isn't the plain blue screen shown in the manual, this is a NEW screen similar to the format for log-in screens and the Start menu.

Edited by Midnighter, 25 June 2009 - 07:39 PM.

[Broni]

Honestly, I'm running out of ideas here...

[Midnighter]

I really appreciate you helping me here. I think the only problem is that the "final" Windows installation setup keeps having errors. I mean, booting from the CD and doing the first setup is fine... it's just that the Windows installation gets interrupted.

Scratch that--- FATAL errors. The logs say something about not being to find i386 files in D:\ or "operation cancelled by user"

Edited by Midnighter, 25 June 2009 - 08:03 PM.

[Broni]

I don't know, what to tell you.
RAM test went OK, hard drive test went fine...
Maybe there is something wrong with Windows CD, you're using.

[rcramm]

Broni,

If your out of ideas I'll through in a couple of things I've had to do that could be related. I'm not sure where you'd find some of this info online but at work we've been through some separate experiences where the HDD Diagnostics would come back fine but the hard drive hard actually been bad. That may or may not be true here.

Also I have had issues on a few occasions (mostly with Windows vista not so much with XP) that doing a 0 fill format will allow you to do a proper install on the computer. That is asuming the CD with XP Pro isn't the problem. I would say that is a much more likely scenario.

[edge2022]

It appears to me like it's a bad CD.

doing a 0 fill format will allow you to do a proper install on the computer

This is a good idea. Every diagnostic utility should have the option to do this.

[rcramm]

If you also think the cd is bad then I would recommend doing an MD5 checksum to find out for sure whether if it is good or bad to rule that out as a possibility. I've only to do it a couple of times. Usually it's very very obvious the CD is bad so I'm not sure I could explain exactly how to go about it. If I get enough time I will try to write up a a response about it but if someone else knows better feel welcome to respond on how to do that exactly.

[edge2022]

MD5 checksum

You can do this... but you won't know the checksum to compare it to.
And a MD5 checksum is for a specific file... like a disc image... not an entire disc.

Edited by edge2022, 26 June 2009 - 01:51 PM.

[rcramm]

I thought if you googled it and it came up with something it's a good sign that the checksum is good and if you don't get anything leans more towards it being bad.

[Midnighter]

Oh, thanks for looking into my problem guys. If it's a bad CD any suggestions on what I should do for now? It's kinda weird since it's an "official" (i.e. legit) CD that came w/ the computer. Maybe it is a faulty CD though.

Edited by Midnighter, 02 July 2009 - 11:06 AM.