Trouble Installing Windows XP

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debbie marshall

Junior Member
After installing Parallels Desktop for Mac, I tried installing Windows XP Pro but received a

Data Error: cyclic redundancy check

I followed the instructions for "installing windows xp" in the Quick Start Guide. I have a Mac OS X ver 10.4.8
 
That looks like a disk read error. XP disks have been a problem. Try creating an image using the Parallels image tool and installing from the image.
 
Well, now you have all the usual options for an unreadable disk. Soap and water (applies with your fingers, not an abrasive cloth or sponge) have made disks readable for me. Copying the disk on another machine and then installing from the copy has been reported here as occasionally solving the problem. If those things don't work, you really have a defective disk and need to get a replacement, or you have a defective optical drive. In any case, it's almost certainly hardware.
 
debbie marshall said:
I tried creating an image of the XP disk but Parallels Image Tool "encountered an error while reading the disk" Now what?
Click to expand...

I'll agree with joe in everything except one!

It is certainly most likely NOT a hardware problem.

My years with MS points to a bad CD/DVD. Persoanlly I've run aboyt a 25% failure rate. Try his suggestions.
If it continues to fail have your paperwork ready and call MS for a replacement.
IF the replacement also fails THEN you MAY have a hardware problem.

Does your system read and burn other CD or DVD OK? If yes, it points to the MS disk.
If no, bring it in to Apple.

ajm
 
joem said:
A bad CD (disk) would be hardware, wouldn't it?
Click to expand...
No! Not in the technical sense. Because the term hardware refers to the computer hardware i.e.
the CD/DVD drive, the CPU, the screen, etc.

The disk is not part of the computer ergo, a bad disk would be considered a MEDIA or software failure.

ajm
 
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I guess we have different definitions of hardware. Software is arrangements of bits (programs). Hardware is actual physical "stuff" you can hold in your hand. Software can be copied onto hardware without having to create new software. Copying hardware requires physical duplication. Therefore media is hardware. If I own a file, I can copy it as many times as I like, even onto CDs (for example). Each copy requires a new CD, but uses the same file. The file is software and the CD is hardware.

General rule: If you can hold it in your hand (given it's small enough), and two of them weigh twice as much, it's hardware.

PS this is silly.
 
I think of a CD/DVD as media, not hardware, software, or firmware. But - if this is the only disk the OP has trouble with then it probably suggests the media is damaged in some way. Your recovery suggestions are worth a try.
 
joem said:
I guess we have different definitions of hardware. Software is arrangements of bits (programs). Hardware is actual physical "stuff" you can hold in your hand. Software can be copied onto hardware without having to create new software. Copying hardware requires physical duplication. Therefore media is hardware. If I own a file, I can copy it as many times as I like, even onto CDs (for example). Each copy requires a new CD, but uses the same file. The file is software and the CD is hardware.

General rule: If you can hold it in your hand (given it's small enough), and two of them weigh twice as much, it's hardware.

PS this is silly.
Click to expand...

In order to communicate one must use proper terminology. It is the excepted standard worldwide that hardware, refers to the components of the computer or computer system.

The disk, CD disc, DVD, disc, tape, etc. fall under the catagory media! Media contains data. That data, regardless of form or purpose is software. Some software contains program code.

These are the accepted terms and their universal meaning. You can call it what you want. That is your choice. But in so doing you may not be understood.

ajm

PS
No not silly at all!
Most of the foolish comments and questions in this forum are do to miscommunication and lack of comprehension.
 
I've been in this business for several decades, and all "stuff" has been, for all that time, referred to as either hardware or software. Media has always been hardware, going back to seven track tape. A damaged tape was a hardware problem if it was physical damage, and software if improperly recorded. A bad tape was a hardware problem.

Adding a third category of media must be pretty new, and makes little sense. If there's a bad block on a disk, is it hardware if the disk in non-removable and not hardware but media if the drive is in a hot swap carrier?

I like the original definition better and I'll stick with it. It's all either hardware or software.
 
I get "non system disk or disk error" and therefore created an .iso file but get the same error.

I checked the disk on a PC, and it is good.

Other disks work in my MAC. Is there something else that I am not thinking of?
 
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