HELP with Reformat Win XP

So recently I started receiving the "You do not have permission to access this file" error. I realized that something terrible happened on this computer through the (mis)use of deleting capabilities by my family. So I decided I would just reformat and start over. So I deleted partion, formatted new partition and started the install. I got all the way to where it says "registering components" and I get the SAME error as before. I hit ok and it restarts itself. It boots up like I finished the install and I go to accessories and click on notepad just to see and I still get the same error with notepad. Any one have any ideas?

Kyle

 

:wave Welcome to MajorGeeks! :major

First- are you 100% sure that the partition was deleted?
Second- are you using a 'factory' install disc (like one of the holographic discs from Microsoft or the disc from your PC maker like Dell HP, etc)? If you're using a copy or a 'customized' install disc, that could be the problem.

These are about the only things I can think of that would cause a permission error on a clean install. Another thing (and it's a bit of a stretch) would be if the PC is on a network and another PC on the same network is 'worming' its way in to the clean install and messing up the permissions. However, this could only happen if the ethernet device on the PC is recognized by Windows and the driver is installed during the XP install. Maybe unplug the ethernet cable before starting the install, and use a clean 3rd party utility to wipe and remove the partition first (plenty of free partition tools can be found here).

Good luck! Let us know what happens!

 

I'm pretty sure dlg's suggestion that the partition wasn't properly deleted will be the answer. However I can think of a few other scenarios that might explain it too. Here are all the theories in order of likelihood:

1. Partition Wasn't Deleted
dlg's suggestion that the partition wasn't deleted - perhaps you ran a 'Repair Install' instead of deleting the partition (also known as 'reformatting').

2. Faulty Hard Drive
If the partition was indeed deleted and you did successfully reformat then perhaps you're selecting the (Quick) format rather than the regular. The quick format is the same as a regular with the exception that it doesn't check for errors on the hard drive first. So if your hard drive is faulty then you might find there are sectors that can't be read but can still be written. Windows may then install just fine, but when it comes to reading the files that are in those bad sectors, it fails and produces the error. To check for that, boot from the UBCD and run a diagnostics on your hard drive. Don't be afraid to ask for more clarification on doing that if you need to btw!

*3. Custom/Copied Windows CD
You've installed from a pirated copy of Windows and it has either a bug or malware contained within. You seem like an upstanding member of the community so I'm sure this isn't the case!

*4. Faulty RAM
I think you could possibly get an error message like this from a fault in your RAM. I would expect you to have lots of different errors though, rather than the same one when doing the same thing.

*5. MBR Virus
You might have an MBR virus - a special virus that survives a reformat. This problem doesn't seem like a virus though.

*6. Network Virus
You might be getting reinfected by a network virus the way dlg suggested. For this to happen you'd specifically given write-access to other users across your network - you can't have done this without knowing you did, so if you don't know what I just said or don't think you did, then you definitely didn't!

* = I really doubt you're in scenario 3, 4, 5 or 6. I'm really pretty confident you're problem is caused by 1 or 2.