Error 1305 on reinstall of halflife

[fermented_duck]

hey everyone.
I know this installation error has been covered (sorta) in this thread: http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=59665 , and on numerous other websites, but no matter what happens I still cant seem to get half life to install.
I installed it pretty much when it came out, and everything worked fine. now im getting the good ole' "Error 1305 - Can't access base source shared models.gcf" message... it seems to spend like 15 minutes trying to find the file before giving up.
anyway, here are the different methods i tried to install:
-Looking for a scratch - the disk appears to be perfect.
-Installing with and without CS source.
-Installing with and without placing shortcuts.
-Restarting computer, not running any programs, installing.
-blasphamy

i thought it was perhaps becasue steam was allready installed (i think i installed that, then didnt install half life at some stage, but yeah. i uninstalled steam. still, the same error message.

i remember seeing on another forum someone said go into run/msconfig and undoing all windows apps uder the 'services' tab, but if i do that and restart, i cant install the program to begin with because one of thoes windows apps is related to installing. buggered if i know which...

anyways, thanks for any help you can give

btw - i have winXP and SP2 installed.

 

[fermented_duck]

ok after consulting my friend he says pretty much the only way to install it is to reformat, install HL2 & Steam, then install SP2.
is there an easier way? like some magic file i can download that solves all my problems?

im starting to believe bill gates' greatest turn on is my displeasure.

 

[diluted]

Do you have any kind of disc copying/virtual drive software such as Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% installed on your computer? There was one time I was getting that error, and I found something on some site that recommended to uninstall those programs so I did (I had DTools) and then it installed fine. Also another time I tried to install and got that error message, it turned out to be a bad memory stick (I tested the memory with a program called memtest86).