[aaaa44]

Compaq Presario 5000, Model 5BW220, Intel Celeron, 06c0 motherboard, made 7/15/00, WD Caviar SE 320G HD.

I'm trying to install XP Home on a new hard drive with an OEM installation CD. I'm able to get through the partitioning and formatting, but when the installation automatically reboots part way through the process the only screen that comes back up is the original screen with the message: "Press any key to boot from the CD. A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". If I do press the spacebar from this screen the installation just starts from the beginning again. I can't get past the partitioning and formatting steps. Someone suggested to remove the installation disk just before or after the reboot, but this made no difference. The hard drive and dvd burner are new as are the IED cables and burner cable. I tried installing with an old burner but that didn't work either. All the connections are secure. I checked them several times. Also, I believe I had the burner set as the master and the HD set as the slave and cable select, and both the burner and HD attached to separate IED cables and both set as master and the HD set at the single setting that is with no jumper. None of this made any difference. The HD installation CD does not work either. It gets part way into the installation then stops. A tech guy tested the HD installation CD, and it worked for him. Most people have said that I don't need to use the HD installation CD in order to install the o/s. Is this true? The tech guy also tested the HD and said it was fine. He did not test my Windows installation CD. I have tried installing with this Home installation cd several times, so each time I try now I get a message saying that the o/s already exists and that it's not recommended to install another o/s on the same partition. Should I just ignore this message each time I try to install? The burner, HD and floppy are all listed in the bios. I've tried booting from both the burner and floppy drive set as number one in the sequence. Someone said that my problem sounded like the Home installation cd is scratched or damaged in some way. Should I check it in another computer, and if it is bad how do I replace it? I don't believe XP Home is being supplied anyomore.

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Replace the hard drive if it isn't new already.
If it is new, replace the data cable - the IDE cable since that system will be too old to be SATA.
Failing this its more likely to be a problem with the motherboard.

An XP CD is all you need but these will not pick up issues with the board.

[Neil Jones]

Replace the hard drive if it isn't new already.
If it is new, replace the data cable - the IDE cable since that system will be too old to be SATA.
Failing this its more likely to be a problem with the motherboard.

An XP CD is all you need but these will not pick up issues with the board.