I just thought that I would ask here first, since i'm unsure. I'm going to be very thorough since it seems so strange to me. I'm betting it is a hardware issue, but I don't know for sure. Anyways, here goes:
I have a setup that has been going rock solid since I got it (bought the 90nm winchester Athlon 64 3000+ when it came out) and it serves my needs.
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 2.4Ghz on an Abit AV8
1GB (512x2) Crucial Ballistix DDR400
2x80GB Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 SATA HDDs in a RAID 0 array (no, its not for 'games')
GeForce 6600GT (overclocked too)
420W OCZ PowerStream PSU
XP Pro 32-bit on the RAID array, Gentoo Linux on a 40gb PATA drive
Anyways, the problem is not with my PC. A co-worker is getting into the same stuff (he hasn't started with video or audio or anything else, so what he wants to do IS irrelevant) and he was going to build a setup identical to mine since he really likes its performance and stability. Has NEVER failed me (I do backups to a 250GB external drive though) either.
He built and showed me the computer...looked like he cloned mine instead . He bought the 80gig drives from someone that had been previously using them. He grabbed a trial version of XP Pro 64bit to try out first, and so he didn't set them up in a RAID array yet. He noticed that when he went to install, the installer was telling him it couldn't copy some files over. He said they were fairly random which ones when he'd try again and again on failsafe settings, and it would freeze up instantly once it finished the install and went into XP Pro 64bit.
I came over and checked it out and one message he neglected to mention was that it was warning him about a disk driver wasn't found or properly installed. I do not have the exact message, but it happens each and every time so I could get it for you if you wish.
I took his store-bought copy of XP Pro 32-bit and wiped both drives clean (just in case) and it was also failing to copy over some files. Let me clarify that it was before the actual GUI install that it was showing those messages. You could either retry, skip the file or quit. One was an exe once, another in the same install was a .lex file, and they seemed to be quite random. It also showed the same disk driver message once, but none of the other times. Windows was completely unstable each time, however.
I took his XP Pro 64bit eval and put it on the PATA drive in my PC and I had no issues installing it. I figured it was the HDDs, but I put my 40gig drive in his PC and attempted both installs and I got the same messages as his drives. Anyone have any ideas? If you want to know exactly what files they are, I can provide you their names. I'm just quite mystified at this point and thought I better ask first. He has a new laptop, so its not an urgent problem. He doesn't rely on the PC for everyday tasks.
I have ran Fedora Core 4 on my 40gig drive in his PC successfully, have not tried in the drives he bought. The motherboard shipped with the latest BIOS version, which I find to be very good. The SATA/RAID drivers he put on a floppy came off of Abit's site and were version 4.20 (latest is 4.30H I believe).
If this is a hardware problem, please don't blast me for it. It is now 1:27am, I've worked on it for 6 hours and we dealt with software all night . Well, I tried my best to be detailed...hope it helps.
I have a setup that has been going rock solid since I got it (bought the 90nm winchester Athlon 64 3000+ when it came out) and it serves my needs.
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 2.4Ghz on an Abit AV8
1GB (512x2) Crucial Ballistix DDR400
2x80GB Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 SATA HDDs in a RAID 0 array (no, its not for 'games')
GeForce 6600GT (overclocked too)
420W OCZ PowerStream PSU
XP Pro 32-bit on the RAID array, Gentoo Linux on a 40gb PATA drive
Anyways, the problem is not with my PC. A co-worker is getting into the same stuff (he hasn't started with video or audio or anything else, so what he wants to do IS irrelevant) and he was going to build a setup identical to mine since he really likes its performance and stability. Has NEVER failed me (I do backups to a 250GB external drive though) either.
He built and showed me the computer...looked like he cloned mine instead . He bought the 80gig drives from someone that had been previously using them. He grabbed a trial version of XP Pro 64bit to try out first, and so he didn't set them up in a RAID array yet. He noticed that when he went to install, the installer was telling him it couldn't copy some files over. He said they were fairly random which ones when he'd try again and again on failsafe settings, and it would freeze up instantly once it finished the install and went into XP Pro 64bit.
I came over and checked it out and one message he neglected to mention was that it was warning him about a disk driver wasn't found or properly installed. I do not have the exact message, but it happens each and every time so I could get it for you if you wish.
I took his store-bought copy of XP Pro 32-bit and wiped both drives clean (just in case) and it was also failing to copy over some files. Let me clarify that it was before the actual GUI install that it was showing those messages. You could either retry, skip the file or quit. One was an exe once, another in the same install was a .lex file, and they seemed to be quite random. It also showed the same disk driver message once, but none of the other times. Windows was completely unstable each time, however.
I took his XP Pro 64bit eval and put it on the PATA drive in my PC and I had no issues installing it. I figured it was the HDDs, but I put my 40gig drive in his PC and attempted both installs and I got the same messages as his drives. Anyone have any ideas? If you want to know exactly what files they are, I can provide you their names. I'm just quite mystified at this point and thought I better ask first. He has a new laptop, so its not an urgent problem. He doesn't rely on the PC for everyday tasks.
I have ran Fedora Core 4 on my 40gig drive in his PC successfully, have not tried in the drives he bought. The motherboard shipped with the latest BIOS version, which I find to be very good. The SATA/RAID drivers he put on a floppy came off of Abit's site and were version 4.20 (latest is 4.30H I believe).
If this is a hardware problem, please don't blast me for it. It is now 1:27am, I've worked on it for 6 hours and we dealt with software all night . Well, I tried my best to be detailed...hope it helps.