I have encountered this problem more than once. Sometimes when im reformatting, and im booting from the cd/dvd drive, ill get so far in the xp install and the install will then stop and tell me that a certain file cannot be copied and i must either retry by pressing enter or exit installation by pressing escape. It goes on to tell me that xp may not work without this file. Any way, i press enter a few times and i go back to that same screen, finally i open the drive theh close it immediately then press enter and itll start to copy the files that were once uncopyable. This happens a few times during the installation process and takes forever to format. During this time i notice that the drive will act as if its not doing anything, and just sit their quietly, even though the computer is on, and there doesnt seem to be a problem with the hd, because i transferred it to another comp and the sata drive is working perfectly. This keeps on happening and i have yet to format this comp. Mind you, i also tried using two discs, everytime the message pops up, put in the other one and try again, but at the end of that, i guess one disc was older than the first (the original had sp2 preinstalled on it), and when i finished, it told me that some components may not work....WHAT SHOULD I DO...HOLLA BACK ASAP
Maybe it could be that your CD/DVD drive is too hot, eject disk when error happens and wait a few minutes, than reinsert and continue with install. Switching xp disks is not recommended, smart try though! If that does'nt work I would start reinserting power cables and IDE/SATA cables as well, could be a contact issue. Good Luck!
