Cannot Install Windows XP or 2003 Server

[gallocs]

Hello,

Recently I have removed a 250GB hard drive from my old Pentium 4 machine to setup a Raid 0 with two other drives. I originally had that 250GB drive as the boot drive which worked with no problems. However, once I removed it and tried to use either my older 160GB drive, or my newer 400GB drive (yes the motherboard is new enough to see drives over 137GB) I just cannot install windows. If I insert the XP installation disc and choose either drive that is installed the setup copies all the necessary files, but upon reboot I encounter a problem. Once the computer starts to boot from the hard drive I get the XP logo and it appears to be loading into setup, however it doesn't. Sometimes I will get a blue screen saying "Setup is being restarted......" however, it loads to a black screen (but my LCD is still backlit.) Out of curiousity I even tried to install Server 2003, and encounter the same problem. This made me try Vista as well. The Vista install hangs as soon as the mouse loads. To make sure the hardware is still functioning I have run memtest86 which passed, and I have recently used both hard drives to move around several hundred gigabytes of files. I doubt it's the processor (530J - 3.0 GHz) since I have an Artic Freezer Pro 7 on it the temperatures stay in a nice cool area. I doubt it's the motherboard either since the computer was working fine several days ago. I have even tested the SATA cables, tried installing with only one SATA drive plugged in, and even tried installing XP from my other disc drive, but no matter what I get this problem. If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

[compdoc]

I had a similar problem recently with a customer's computer, and even though memtest passed the memory, it was still the memory that was at fault.

[OlyComputers]

I agree with compdoc, try switching out the Memory. You've done about all the troubleshooting I could suggest but here's what's left:

Try a CD bootable OS, Linux live CD or miniPE BartPE (if you're comfortable with the questionable leval situation), ect,...

You could also try installing the OS on the drive in a different computer and then moving it to this one. It doesn't always work with XP, but if you manually install the drivers for the system it should boot properly. This would tell you if the problem is with the systems ability to boot, or the installation process.

[gallocs]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I had some interesting discoveries while troubleshooting some more. I tried each ram stick one by one and found that one actually made me BSOD while copying files. My next problem was actually my monitor, which had me for quite a while. After my computer began to load the actual Windows setup from the HDD my monitor would flicker and stay backlit, yet would receive no video. So after trying a different video card I used the recall feature on my monitor and was able to see the XP setup. I'm currently re-installing all my programs for Windows and I'm thankful for the help you guys gave me.

[compdoc]

thats good you made some progress. post back if you still have problems.