Hard drive

I'm not sure if this is really a hard drive issue or if it is something else. I've recently built a computer with help from a teacher. Everything is new except for the hard drive, which is out of a dell that was having issues. Anyhow, my problem comes when I try to install software that has been on the machine before I reformatted and reinstalled windows. I'm getting an error during installation that says:

"Error 1335. The cabinet file 'Data1.cab' required for this installation is corrupt and cannot be used. This could indicate a network error, an error reading from the CD-ROM, or a problem with this package."

Now some of the programs are from discs and a couple I installed from a flash drive. So I've pretty much ruled out the possibility that this is caused by disc scratches. The weird thing is that the programs I'm trying to install have been installed before the reformat and worked fine. Also they install and work fine on other computers. Does this just mean that I need to replace the hard drive or is there something else I should be looking at?

Also I am running Windows XP home SP2

 

It could be the hard drive is dying as you suspect, or the CDROM is in need of a cleaning or is dying. However, if you get the error when installing from a flash drive also, then the problem may very well be the hard drive, esp. if you've had issues before. New hard drives are very affordable these days, with a 250gb drive being under $100 for IDE/ATA drives (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148241) and SATA drives are a bit less. You may want to install a new drive soon, before the current one fails. Then you'd be back here asking about data recovery
Good luck!

 

Run HDD diagnostic utility, they available for free/free download from the HDD manufacture

 

Also, it is worth clicking start, run, and type in CHKDSK /R, CLICK O.K. Then restart your computer, and it will run a check, -note the space between the K, AND THE /
It will also repair the disk , if it is not too bad and only has a bad sector (it sort of hides the bad bit, and moves data to a good sector, if the drive is recoverable) and your hard drive might be a few bytes smaller.--sometimes making the hard drive last that much longer, if its got a bad area.

 

well I just replaced the hard drive and everything seemed to be running smoothly untill a few minutes ago when i got the same error on yet another program. And this time the original programs that were giving me the problem are installed fine and functioning properly, at least from what I can tell.

 

The errors you are experiencing are most likely due to an old Windows installer version or corrupt windows installer files. Try updating your windows installer to the latest version. You can download it from Microsoft. See link below:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...fc-5f56-4a38-b838-de776fd4138c&displaylang=en

I would also update your flash player as well. Here's the link:

http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash