Windows Re-Format/Blue Screen?

Ok, so i have an old Dell Dimension 4500s and it kept saying “your disk usage is operating out of dell’s desired specs…” or something like that… the hard drive would fail to write or read most of the time and fail…. it then crashed and I bought a hard drive from newegg to replace it and I have all the original driver and windows xp disks from dell. When I boot from CD you can hear everything running and windows files load up and then at random times it just slows down from being revving up and working and hangs on the loading of windows files… I’ve gotten all the way up to the point where I created a whole new partition on the HD and was ready for it to copy windows files…. It will get to about 4% at most, say “xxxxx.sys” is corrupt and wasn’t copied. Then i get what looks to be the BSOD…. do you think the CD Drive is causing it?
Answer #1
do you think the CD Drive is causing it?
possibly, or the disk is dirty or scratched
Answer #2
It could be something else. If the disk was dirty it wouldn’t cause a BSOD.. You sure it was a bsod .. if your getting a bsod during windows setup then its hardware relating. Most likely culprit is the RAM. Try taking it out and putting it back in!! Otherwise if you got a faulty disk then there shouldnt be a bsod. If that doesn’t work try a new CD or maybe USB boot.
Answer #3
Try cleaning the disc as edwoodweb says,
The BSOD – you probably need to delete the installation files that have already been created on the hdd.
Edit – try downloading another Dell OEM ISO and burn a new disc.
Answer #4
the disk has never been taken out of the package from dell.. its in pristine condition. I know replaced the ram in it about a year ago and still have the 2x 256mb sticks that came with the dell.. should i throw those dell in.. Right now I have 2x 1GB G-Skill’s in there. and im talking about the cd drive itself because it seemed to stop “running” at random times…
Answer #5
You could try swapping out the RAM.
You can get new IDE dvd burners for less than £15 here in the UK, probably get them cheaper where you are, unless you have a spare.
Have you tried installing from a flash drive instead ?
Answer #6
well i know they are cheap but since no ones sells IDE drives in stores now really, i might have to order 1 from newegg just to see if it works… which will suck because i might have to wait till like next tuesday just to try. The only spare drives I have are SATA. Actually, anything spare I have is SATA. lol
Answer #7
is ur pc clean inside? like no dust
Answer #8
ryj438 replied: well i know they are cheap but since no ones sells IDE drives in stores now really, i might have to order 1 from newegg just to see if it works... which will suck because i might have to wait till like next tuesday just to try. The only spare drives I have are SATA. Actually, anything spare I have is SATA. lol
gilly replied:
Have you tried installing from a flash drive instead ?
or you can make an empty spare SATA drive bootable and do it that way. (You would need an ext USB SATA HDD enclosure for this method)
Answer #9
Erikz replied: is ur pc clean inside? like no dust
yes… when i put in the new HD i blew the crap out of it with compressed air.. the heatsink was literally all dust… it was ridiculous.
Answer #10
Dude I think ur hard disk damaged or change ur RAM and Try..
Answer #11
this HD is brand new and works in my other computer…
Answer #12
ryj438 replied: this HD is brand new and works in my other computer...
Well why don’t you just install Windows on it in your other computer ?
Answer #13
I was thinking about doing that and didnt really know if it would work.. ill try that. Kinda forgot about that option anyway.
Answer #14
ryj438 replied: this HD is brand new and works in my other computer...
Then change the RAM & Try again
Answer #15
ryj438 replied: I was thinking about doing that and didnt really know if it would work.. ill try that. Kinda forgot about that option anyway.
Lolz, the easiest way is usually overlooked.
You are only installing Windows on the drive, then stick it in the 4500 and install the drivers. Just make sure you disconnect any other hdd’s in your other computer when doing it, incase you make a mistake.
Answer #16
I was thinking about doing that and didnt really know if it would work
prob won’t work, unless the 2 PC have similar hardware
the disk has never been taken out of the package from dell.. its in pristine condition.
if it’s never been used (tested) then it may be the wrong disc for your PC
M$ installation errors can say one thing and can mean something completely different
download a copy of XP from here and see if that will install
It could be something else. If the disk was dirty it wouldn't cause a BSOD.. You sure it was a bsod .. if your getting a bsod during windows setup then its hardware relating.
BSoD’s can also be caused by driver conflicts
the are not just caused by bad hardware
Answer #17
Clean ur RAM and refix it ………..
Answer #18
gilly replied: Have you tried installing from a flash drive instead ?
I second this, I don’t know why but some DVD drive’s are just like “playing hard to get” on certain CD’s / DVD’s, and since you’re on laptop I think installing from flash drive is a good solution to this problem.