XP Pro installation problems

[Marv]

I've been trying to install XP Pro on a couple of HDDs with no success. I've tested both drives with man. software from dos prompt and found no errors or bad sectors but Windows says there's a problem and it can't format because of a bad drive. Anyone know what's going on?
Thanks

8-11-05 UPdate I just pulled the drive and hooked it up to another machine and it's installing now so it's either the connection and cable or the Ram. I'll troubleshoot both to figure out which one was causing the problem.

All of you were on the right track and I really do appreciate your input and suggestions.
I'll post when I find the exact culprit.

8-15-05 After thorough troubleshooting (at least as thourough as I'm going to do with this thing) I've come to the conclusion that it's the Mothaboard.
It was a good learning experience.

[EvilMunky]

what type of drives?
ie pata / sata etc etc

[Marv]

6,8 and 10 gig ATA. Different breeds. I've tried two different XP Pro discs and one 2003 SBS cd just to make sure it's not the software and none can format NTFS. I even tried to format fat 32 and install 98se last night and although it formatted ok i received an inf install error message right after it began the install. I also did a low level format prior to the last shot at the xp install with the same results. Very confusing.

[herulach]

Have you run memtest? Lots of errors are caused by bad ram, or have you checked the cd drive/cable? Its possible it doesnt like the size and is getting its errors confused, but i doubt it as ive installed xp pro to a 6 gig disk with no problems.

[Marv]

No I haven't done either but that's a very good idea. I'll start switching things around and see if it helps. I've got plenty of ram installed and it's showing up as functional with Everest software but I haven't switched the cables. I've installed XP Pro on a number of 6 gig drives without a problem and I also have it installed on a 2.16 gig Samsung so I doubt if it's the drive size either. I'll change cables, then ram and I'll post the results either way tomorrow. Thanks for your suggestions.

[alberto]

check the RAM, CD or DVD reader , cd support....

[blueball]

I had this recently with brand new SATA drive - turned out the drive was goosed.

[unreal]

See if the IDE lead is faulty, my CD burner was playing silly for months until I accidently found out.

[Marv]

I just pulled the drive and hooked it up to another machine and it's installing now so it's either the connection and cable or the Ram. I'll troubleshoot both to figure out which one was causing the problem.

All of you were on the right track and I really do appreciate your input and suggestions.
I'll post when I find the exact culprit.

[mjhants]

Did you identify the problem here?

[plesuvius]

Might be the block access mode in the bios. Check what the default (normally auto) is settign itself to on the two boards, and if necessary manually set it. Could well help. This can help with newer mobos and newer sata drives, by the way.
Just a quick point, a lot of the user-experience speed of a modern PC comes from the IO speed and the Hard Drive speed. A new system will often still seem slow with an old hard drive. It's a cheap and cheerful upgrade for a few tens of pounds, and you get a few tens of extra gigs for your money

[Marv]

Did you identify the problem here?

I haven't yet however I hope to get to it tomorrow evening. Now that I know that it's something associated with the MB, RAM, etc and not the hard drive I have installed the HD in another PC and can get back to diagnosing the problem. I know it may seem like I'm being chincy but that's really not the case. I have a lot of older PCs and I enjoy trying to get them operational again. It's a very good learning experience. Thanks for your input.