Ok I downloaded boot and nuke to wipe my hard drive on my laptop. Once that finished and everything was completely gone, I tried to install Vista. It gets to the "Expanding files" part, hangs at 0%, then goes to 1%, then 2%, then an error comes up.

"Windows could not install required files. The file could not be found. Please restart and try again. Error code 0x8007003"

I tried running boot and nuke agian, I tried installing XP, I tried resetting the bios, I tried removing the 2 GB of ram I recently put in, I've tried cleaning the disc 5 times, nothing works.

I really need some help here. Anybody?

Bad CD?

also, I dont think vista likes installing if you have more than 1gb ram

Bad CD was my first thought but if it was, then how would it load all the Windows files when you boot? And why would it only stop in the middle of the install? But who knows.

Oh and my desktop has 4gb of ram and Vista installs fine.

Oh and my desktop has 4gb of ram and Vista installs fine.

you are lucky. read.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

If you got an OEM copy, or have got integrated SP1, then this will be resolved.

The Vista cd is from Dell, don't know if that's OEM or not, and no SP1 isn't integrated.

yeah the dell OEM disks have the hotfix integrated into it (my dad has a dell e520)

I just tried taking the 2 gigs out again and it got to 52 percent then gave me the error

yeah either its a bug, bad ram, bad media, or bad drive

try and test the ram with memtest86 just in case

You got another vista cd you can try?

P.S is the drive SATA? Vista doesnt like installing on SATA dvd drives that much

No I don't, but the most recent time I tried to install Vista I saw a little warning at the bottom of the window saying that my disk may soon fail, I guess its the hard drive. Thanks for the suggestions guys. It's so weird, it was working perfectly until just now (the hard drive).

yeah try a new hard drive and see

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