Disk Read Error when i install Xp

[hybridbhau]

I keep getting " disk read error press ctrl-alt-delete" when i install windows xp .
But windows 7 and windows 8 run just fine after a clean install.
Seems like my hard is having some bad sectors . I cant format the whole drive because i dont have any way to backup data (500 gb ) .

Please Help .

 

[Saga Lout]

Run Windows 7 or 8 and use Checkdisk to find the bad sectors and try to fix them. The syntax at Command Prompt is chkdsk c: /r where C: is the main partition drive letter.

If this is a PC and you really want XP, use an extra hard disk to install on and leave the existing disk as a storage drive. If it's a laptop, take the hard disk out and slave it to another machine with a USB converter, then take off your data.

 

[hybridbhau]

Run Windows 7 or 8 and use Checkdisk to find the bad sectors and try to fix them. The syntax at Command Prompt is chkdsk c: /r where C: is the main partition drive letter.

If this is a PC and you really want XP, use an extra hard disk to install on and leave the existing disk as a storage drive. If it's a laptop, take the hard disk out and slave it to another machine with a USB converter, then take off your data.

Yes its a PC .I did checkdisk and then did a format of windows 7 and installed xp but it didnt helped , got the same error . But when i installed windows 7 again its working fine and i am running that only . The reason i want to get to xp is that my RAM seems to be defective . Its a 2GB DDR2 but the OS is detecting only 510 MB . So i have many problems to deal with now . 🙁

 

[Saga Lout]

If the XP insrtall process couldn't see a hard disk, it would be a BIOS issue of changing the AHCI setting to IDE but "can't read" is a mystery. There's definitely something wrong with the memory but I can't relate that to W7 being able to run but XP not to install.