Windows XP Installation Problem
 

Hello,

I am trying to Install Windows XP SP2 in a computer, and I keep hitting the same problem of "File X cannot be found. Press any key to reboot."

What's funny is that missing file is often A DIFFERENT ONE with the SAME CD!!! So, sometimes the file is missing, sometimes it is not.

What's the matter here? Do I need to clean my CDROM drive or something?

This has been the result of a bad CD, or a bad/dirty CD drive in my experiences. Except one time it was a dead SCSI controller's fault.

Either way, I'd try a different CD, someone must have one around that you could use for testing. Or a different CD drive.

Trying a new CD is usually the easier of the two.

What the make of your motherboard? There was this string of problems with a certain VIA chipset that would cause WinXP install issues as you describe if the CDROM and HDD windows was being installed on are on different IDE channels.

If cleaning doesn't resolve the problem, try putting your CD-ROM as the slave device to your HDD for the install and see if resolve the issue.