An aftermarket videocard was my problem. I had a similar encounter with a brand new Dell Optiplex 320 which forced me to look this up. I found this site and am glad i did. I ended up switching out everything, Ram, CDROM, Harddrive,powersupply, and tried different CD's even new ones right out of the sealed envelopes, all with the same result. Then it hit me, this PC has an integrated video card AND a PCI-E Video Card, which we plan on using for duel monitors. I removed the aftermarket video card and just used the onboard video, and SUCCESS!!!! it went through the entire install without a single problem. I cannot claim to know exactly why the video card was the culprit but my guess is memory managment, since the videocard has 512mb of its own memory and the onboard card uses RAM there may have been a conflict there.

I have a new Dell PowerEdge 850. Adaptec RAID card. Windows 2003 64-bit install is failing.

I tested the memory. Still "cannot copy file". Stumped for about a week now.

Well, I did some digging and came up with some vital information to help all of us through our struggles with the beast from Redmond.

First of all, let me say that I'm going right over to Alexander Roshal's Website and give him some money for the copy of WinRAR I've been using for free all this time. That was the key to this puzzle.

If you extract the .ISO file you are using into a folder, using WinRAR (I suppose you can use any similar program) and then start another copy of WinRAR and browse the folder you can see the .CAB files.

Some of the files I had trouble with were IMAPI.SYS which is in DRIVER.CAB and USER32.DLL which is (inside of?) USER32.DL_ -- and don't ask me to defend the MS buccaneers for their obfuscation. I don't know what a .DL_ file is or why it is needed, but WinRAR makes sense of it and shows you the underlying .DLL and best of all you can test the integrity of these archives.

Well you guessed it, when I right-moused and selected "Test Archived Files" on either of DRIVER.CAB or USER32.DL_ it came back reporting corruption. The .ISO I'd downloaded from my company's servers using the FTP that comes with windows:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\ftp.exe

Bad idea! When I used SCP, then tested the CAB files, everything looked good, so I assume I have a much better chance of completing my install. Nothing about CAB files on the MS site that addresses this issue.

Can you tell I have an axe to grind? Anyway, I hope this helps some other poor fool forced to use this inferior and expensive software

It's RAM! I have the same problem. I was tried some things like , replace CD, install from HDD, install from USB, everything no lucky!!! The final, read this topic I removed 3 RAM stick, using 1, It's OK! Thanks everybody!

I had a very similar problem installing XP on my (ancient) ThinkPad 600E. I made and verified multiple copies of the XP disk, thinking media might be at fault, but no luck. Then I ran memcheck, no RAM problems. Disk checking programs, no disk problems. I also ran various Linux live boot CD's, which made me think the DVD-ROM drive was not faulty. The only thing that worked was to replace the lithium battery that powers the clock and configuration memory for the BIOS. (It was dead.) After I did that, install went fine. I thought I should post just to help any future searchers who have tried everything else on this thread... and give thanks to those who posted the advice above.

I have the same problem with both of my sons computers a laptop and a desktop so i think my problem might be a virus because they go to the same sites or one boy uses the other ones computer now and then any thoughts?

Had this same error for a client of mine. Stumped me. I went through this thread. Turns out that the 1Gb DDR400 Transcend (DDR1) which was installed in Feb 2009 had become faulty. I tried changing the CD-ROM, new IDE cable.

This particular client has frequent power failures coupled with a faulty UPS which likes to reboot PC's.

Thanks a lot to everyone and this website.

I had this same problem could not load win xp on new hardrive but i had changed ram prior to hard replacement of new hardrive which let me note pc was working fine at that time with vista and new ram installed however once i replaced hardrive I encountered major issues installing os I was p**sed with fruistration after many attempts to install I read the blogs at this site concluded it was the ram immediately switched out no problemo good to go I am sooooo happy we pc minded people seek each other out thank you all soooo much..God bless you !!!!!