Member Avatar for gunoi9

Need help to reinstall Win XP-Home Ed. after I replaced the hard disk. Win 95 loads up fine, but I cannot neither upgrade to Win XP-Home, nor do a fresh install.

At boot time, I get the following 1st message for few seconds:
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"Setup is inspecting your computer hardware's configuration:"
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then, I get a blank screen, although you can hear the CD_Rom working and spinning. When I decide to pup the Win CD out, the following message appears:
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"INF file txtsetup.sif is corrupt or missing. Error 3652.
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I also tried to start Win XP install from recovery floppy disks (downloaded from Microsoft.com). After the 1st diskette, the error message I get is:
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"file \biosinfo.inf could not be loaded".
The error code is 4107. Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit.
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During HDD replacement I may have unpluhhed and then plugged back a small card (1 in x 2 in) with battery and some chips - it could have been the BIOS chip. However, I can get into the setup at boot time, can chanhe, save settings. They stay as changed. Like I said, I was able to install my old version of Win 95.

FYI, I've tried these processes with HDD unpartitiones and partitioned+formatted, with same unsuccess.

Please help.
Thank you.

Gunoi

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by nanosani

Dani AI

Generated

Brief diagnostic summary: the setup behavior described by (setup stalls after the hardware inspection and then reports missing/corrupt install files; the recovery floppy fails to load a BIOS INF) most commonly means the installer media or the optical drive is not delivering readable data. Less common causes that produce similar symptoms are bad RAM, a misconfigured/unsupported storage controller (SATA/AHCI/RAID) or a mis-seated add-on card that provides disk/CD access.

Practical checklist (try these in order):

  1. Verify the media: test the Windows XP disc on a different PC or mount the ISO in a VM. If the same files are unreadable there, replace or reburn the disc at a slow speed.
  2. Verify the drive: swap in another optical drive (or use an external USB drive) to rule out a flaky CD-ROM.
  3. Check memory: boot a Memtest86+ image and run at least one full pass; read errors cause random file-corruption symptoms.
  4. Minimize hardware: remove non-essential PCI cards, unplug extra drives, reseat cables and jumpers. The small card you removed could be a controller or BIOS module—reseating it correctly matters.
  5. BIOS/storage mode: set SATA controllers to IDE/compatibility mode (if present) or temporarily disable RAID/AHCI so the plain XP installer can access media.
  6. Alternate install methods: create a fresh installer (reburn ISO at low speed) or use a USB installer tool to write the XP ISO if the machine supports USB boot.
  7. Rebuild recovery media: downloaded floppy images and burned CDs can be corrupted; recreate them from a verified source before relying on them.

Notes on earlier replies: ’s suggestion that the CD may be corrupt is the most likely and the easiest thing to check first. ’s point about upgrade paths is partly relevant — you cannot perform an in-place upgrade from Windows 95 to XP — but that is separate from the installer failing to read setup files.

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Member Avatar for JANINE

hi n welcome to the forums

sounds like you have a faulty set of discs especially if the boot.ini file is missing. also why are you trying to upgrade a 95 o/s to xp? it wont work because of the difference in file systems. xp is more an NT file system rather then a FAT file system. you will first need an upgrade to win 98 if your trying to upgrade a 95 system to xp.

obtain a 98 'startup' disk and try laying your hands on a good copy of xp. get rid of that 95 asap.

Member Avatar for nanosani

Yes I also get this error when I have a corrupt cd rom ... so replace your windows cd and try again.

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