Would anyone have a good guess at what might be going on here?  I'm stumped.

I'm trying to install Ubuntu on my parents' computer, as dual-boot with 
WinXP.  It runs WinXP without any hardware problems.  I resized and 
created partitions using Partition Manager from within WinXP.  That was 
one resized NTFS partition for WinXP, one ext3 partition for Ubuntu 
(everything but /home), one ext3 partition for /home, one ext3 partition 
for migration to the next distro, one Linux swap partition, one FAT32 
partition for sharing data, and about 25G unallocated.  I forget the 
exact sizes of the partitions, but I'm pretty sure I made the Linux 
partitions big enough.

Attempt #1 to install Ubuntu 8.04, using a burned copy of the ISO I 
downloaded, got partway (27%?) through "copying files," then stopped 
with an error message along the lines of "Your CD is defective or your 
CD drive is defective or your HD is defective."  (I'm sorry, I don't 
have the exact text here, but it's copied down on paper by their 
computer.)  Okay, I figured, defective CD somehow.

Last Saturday I brought a pressed (not burned) Ubuntu 8.04.1 CD there.  
First I tried the disc's own "check integrity of this disc" on the 
computer I was going to install it on, and it reported that the disc was 
correct.  So, I tried to install it again, and at about the same point 
it stopped with the same error message.

Since the disc was able to verify itself, I assume the CD and the CD/DVD 
drive are not problems.  I tried 'e2fsck -cc' on the partitions I was 
going to use for /home and for / (everything else), and no errors were 
found.  I tried 'mke2fs -cc -j' on those partitions, still no errors 
found.  I figure that eliminates the HD as the problem.  By that point I 
was stumped.  I started the Memtest program on the Ubuntu CD, and went 
home, where I was able to install 8.04.1 from a burned copy of that 
pressed CD with no problems.  Later I was told that after four complete 
passes, Memtest had found zero memory errors.

So I think I've eliminated the CD, the optical drive, the hard drive, 
and the memory as problems, but there's still a problem somewhere.  Can 
anyone offer a reasonable guess?  Thanks /very/ much in advance for any 
suggestions, as I'm stumped.  Weather permitting, I'll be there again 
Saturday to try again.

Adam

P.S.  Happy holidays to all!

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