File copy problems in installing XP on old IBM Server

At the present time I'm trying to imitate an IT tech (which I'm not) in order to help a friend get her computer working. There's about six miles between our houses, which means I'm making a lot of trips back and forth to try different solutions. Here's what I'm dealing with...and please bear with me, this is going to take some time and space. Would appreciate email response if possible.

She recently bought a used IBM E-Server X-Series 200, Model 847961X. BIOS date is 11/12/2001. CPU is a Pentium 1.3Ghz with 256Mb of RAM. It also has a floppy drive and CD-ROM reader. Came loaded with Windows XP Pro. No Service Pack.

Once set up, somewhere along the way it wound up with Vista Anti-Virus 2008 on it (I know, it's a fake Anti-Virus) that created so many popups that eventually the All Programs button and the Programs Menu disappeared. That's where I came in. I downloaded a set of XP Pro Boot Discs from Microsoft, fed them into the floppy drive and installed XP-Pro over the existing program. This eliminated the popups long enough to uninstall Vista (I'm also aware that it didn't completely uninstall it) and download an evaluation copy of Norton Anti-Virus. Also Spybot Search And Destroy. S&E found several problems and cured them. For the next fifteen days (the length of the Norton evaluation period), everything worked fine with no problems. As soon as the evaluation period ended, Vista returned with the same problem as before.

This time I used the set of boot discs and the XP Pro CD in order to format the drive and do a clean install of XP Pro. Things worked as advertised until I got to a point with only 7 minutes left. Setup froze at that point. Wound up reinstalling XP Pro two more times, starting with the boot discs and going thru the entire sequence. Still froze at the 7 minute mark. Research on the internet turned up information that at the seven minute mark, all you had to do was eject the CD and setup would finish on it's own. Weird solution, but several posters said that it worked for them.

Went back tonight to see if that would solve the problem and ran into another one. The boot discs worked fine and setup from the CD started as it should. Formatted the drive (again) and then the fun began. Immediately after the installation progress screen appeared, a popup warning told me that setup could not read file 'whatever'. Pressed escape to skip that one and the same warning appeared. Ditto for every other file. Pulled the CD and wiped it clean, which it was anyway. Put it back in the drive...same problem. Have been unable to make any progress. This is definitely strange because it worked three different times yesterday...until the seven minute mark...and nothing has changed since then. In fact, the computer hadn't been touched until I went back over there.

Was thinking about putting in a new hard drive if it still froze at seven minutes, but with the warnings about not being able to copy files, that approach doesn't seem valid.

My friend is a widow, handicapped with major medical problems. That translates to no disposable income to spend on buying part after part for this computer. That's why I'm involved and am hoping that there's a way to get this mess fixed without spending anything more than a lot of my time.

She knows nothing about computers except for the fact that they're supposed to work. As a result, she keeps saying it's just a bad computer and I keep saying that it isn't the computer, it's the Windows XP Pro software. I hope some of y'all can help me wade thru this quicksand bog. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
Richard.

 

You have reformatted, but you should also delete the partition(s) on the HDD. I expect there has been different versions of Windows on the machine and maybe not even a Windows system when it worked as a server. Different versions of Windows have different ways of partitioning, not to mention a different type of operating system altogether.

If you still have problems after trying Pete's suggestions and deleting the partitions, test the HDD with the manufacturer's testing utilities. Pete has a list of URLs if you can't find them.

Matt

 

Ta Pete

Matt