Resolved XP Installation failed.

A member was trying to 'reinstall' windows Xp, after computer slowed down , he used a Reinstallation disk for ' already installed on your computer ( Dell Optiflex desktop) he got as far as 'Installing Windows' then got an error message to say ' Installation failed D:\1386\asms access denied,
He tried to reinstall again got the same message, pc retries setup gets to the same point, 'Installation failed' has to switch pc off because he cannot get to ' shut down'
????
Spanner

 

Dirty smudged or scratched CD/DVD would be my guess.

 

Anything to do with XP being SP3 and re-installation disc only SP1 or SP2? Neil.

 

Thanks Retiredlearner, Installation disk is SP3, Think we will try the scratched or dirty disk suggested by Mr Bill. It happened before on a previous post.
Thanks, will be in touch
Spanner

 

Hi Spanner, found a very large number of users were suffering with same problem, and largest number of suggested remedies was dirty/scratched disc.
Possible CD ROM drive faulty etc.
I had the same problem about 3 years ago and I copied and pasted i386 at the point of holdup (can't remember what key was available to use for the operation) but it enabled my install to go ahead OK.

There were quite a few suggestions of Burning XP to a DVD at the slowest speed possible which seemed to be the answer for others. So if you have the Dell CD, why not try a burn to DVD? Neil.
Ps Make sure your Internet connector is unplugged while doing the install.

 

I would suggest creating an ISO file of the CD using Imgburn, then burning a CD from the ISO file, then you'll have an exact clone.

 

Thanks guys,interesting and useful suggestions, however the problem has been solved, I cleaned his XP re-installation disk as Mr Bill suggestion, couldn't see any smudges or marks, tried it , no luck, tried again, got a message do we want to format disk?, as the owner had nothing he wanted to keep, we formatted C:, installation started and finished. owner very happy he has got his PC back working faster, all we have to do is sort out the drivers.
SO why did the first attempts at re-installation fail ?
I will keep the ideas offered for future ref and leave this unsolved until I have had replies to why did the attempts fail.
Thanks
Spanner

 

The most probable reason I can think of from the research I did - burning of disc at too high a burn speed.
Those who had the problem and did another ISO burn at slower speed with DVD seemed to have the most success.
I recently had a similar problem when I left the burn speed as default and the disc wouldn't play properly, so I burnt another at the slowest possible and it worked.
Incidentally, new DVD drives on new set up. Neil.

 

Thanks Retiredlearner. that's a bit more info, that will come in handy.

Calling this Resolved

Thanks
Spanner