Manifest Parse Error…
You receive the following message: “Manifest Parse error: Invalid at top level of document” when installing Windows XP for the first time and the installation fails because it cannot correctly parse the CONTROLS.MAN file. At no point does Microsoft’s installation program allow you to select an alternate source location for the file. It doesn’t even allow you full command prompt access. And the Recovery Program is useless, as it doesn’t even allow you to copy directories or copy using wildcards!
That’s what happened to me, too, after I decided to give Microsoft one more chance to have one of its operating systems on my main computer. I must be a glutton for punishment, because rather than scrapping it completely, I decided to figure out how to get around the problem. Old habits, like most computers running Microsoft operating systems, die hard.
I’ve heard everything from “it’s a copy protection scheme” to “it locks you out after three installations”. I’ve even heard of hundreds of people who have experienced the error from fresh-out-of-the-shrink-wrap, boxed versions of Windows XP. I couldn’t even get my freshly opened XP CD direct from Dell to work properly. Also, many folks prefer to install from CD copies and keep the original disks in close-to-pristine condition, yet rumors abound that as many as 60-70% of the copies experience this same problem. It must be another one of those undocumented Microsoft features.
The /i386/asms/6000/msft/windows/common/controls/controls.man file on the CD is corrupt. Copy your entire CD to your harddrive, use my version of the CONTROLS.MAN file (don’t forget to change the file extension!), and burn another CD. In theory, you could copy the entire i386 directory to your harddrive, replace the damaged file, and then run \i386\winnt.exe to install, but if you really want a reliable and stable system, it is not wise to install the XP operating system over an existing, older OS. So burning a CD is the only viable option for a fresh, clean install.Whether the new OS works well enough to dissuade me from breaking down and purchasing an iMac remains to be seen…
I was getting the wonderful controls.man CRC error on my just out of the shrink wrap XP PRO OEM CD. At first I though all my nice new hardware was suspect, but thankfully all that is great. Anyway I replace the very old 8X CD-ROM with an borrowed brand new Samsung DVD reader and bang, it works like a champ. I guess better readers can overcome MS’s cheap CD presses!
Just like all of you…
I got exactly the same message as peter (look for [Posted by: peter from 132.238.187.69 on March 2, 2003 11:58 AM]).
To all who have this problem, remember this: WinXP Setup seems very sensitive to CD media and/or readers!
My little story. I mounted myself a new PC with recent components:
-MB Asus P4P800 Deluxe
-P4C 2.4Ghz (Intel cooler, too noisy)
-2×256Mb TwinMos PC3200
-ATI 9500 pro
-Maxtor 80Gb (6Y080L0)
-DVD-Rom Samsung (SD-616Q, *very* noisy, unacceptable for me; if someone has a suggestion for a RPC1 and silent DVD drive, thanks)
-Antec black case with 380W
-wireless Logitech combo key/mouse
On my first attempt to install WinXP, Setup wasn’t even able to see the Maxtor hard disk. It seems it was the fault of the Asus MB BIOS (was 1004) which I upgraded to 1006 (needed to borrow a floppy drive for this: I didn’t buy one for this new PC!)
Then the Setup could start… and stop after the first reboot (you know, at 39 minutes remaining). I tryed 3 times, changing BIOS settings between them. Then I looked on internet and I found this page. Obviously I began to doubt about the CD copy, but it appeared to contain all needed files under the ASMS/6000/MSFT folder with the correct content. So I tryed the CD on another computer (an old Dell with P2/450): same problem. Finally I burned a new CD-R and the problem gone. In brief, success story!
Thanks Richard for this page.
Wow… Thank you!!!
I was having so many problems installing Xp on a friends computer, til I found Richard!
Your idea to make the new Control.man file and burn a new cd.. I did this using nero by selecting burn disk at once and all was bootable fun after that.
Something else I did was also do the copying all of I386 into a Folder on C:\I386 as stated in one of the posts on your site.. with a link to windowz. This came in handy when during final fazes the computer could not find the files it was looking for on my cd, for some reason, It could find them on the hard drive..
All is happy and good now.. as I stare at the god awful desk top that I am so happy to see, who knows what XP was thinking with the rolling hills, but happy to see them now! Thanks Richard and fellow posters! Hopefully my experience will help someone else
Kissed
As stated above, the fix for the ‘Line 4′ error is to replace ALL of the files in the controls directory. I used some from an XP Home CD I had, and it worked perfectly.
I cant get the updated CD to boot. Where do I put the boot.img file?
TD
dear friends, thank you so much to all who povided such a comprehensive page and hëll to MS with such a hating product!!
I have a Fujitsu/Siemence C series notebook. I tried to reinstall win xp with the original winxp CD_ROM I had(it was included with notebook) I got the error message of manifest mising for msm\5100…. directory and i tried most likely all the solution mentioned above. copying a new image with winiso, copying to HD, copying the tree to Floppy and i’m still unsuccesfull. my HD is NTFS formatted and the installation goes till 35% and then a blue page that I can’t read comes and stay just for 1 second and then reboot and it repeats again and again and again. what that just can I do is going to command line during the installation by clicking SHIFT&F10. i’m really frustrated and dieing. i rush all the sites and i tried to install more than 100 times during last 40 hours. i need my data on HDD. please help me freinds, thank you so much to all.
I had the same problem on a copied XP Pro CD. Clean install on a A7N8X-X
I found the CONTROL.MAN was 1742 bytes of some binary and mostly blank data. Replacing it with the XML above did the trick.
None of the other XML MAN files were blank.
Since I had to burn the CD again, I took the opportunity to include a few keys and a keygen proggy.
Thanks everyone who’s added their knowledge to this page, it ranks high on Google.
First I want to say thanks for this page. It was a great help.
The solution I found to this problem was to take the ISO image file I had and extract it with ISO Buster. Then I burned all of the files to a CD at 4x (it may actually work at a higher speed but I didn’t want to add to my pile of coasters). It seems that whenever I burned a CD from the ISO the controls.man file was corrupt. When I burned it from all of the extracted files it was fine.
If you are unable to extract the actual ISO, another solution would be like was suggested earlier and copy the entire CD contents to the HD. Chances are, if the commons.man file is corrupted, that an error will occur in the process (so be forewarned). Once the CD contents are on your HD, delete the commons.man file that is there and create a new one with the contents above. Then burn from the HD files you have and you will hopefully be good to go.
GL, HF, and thanks again.
Hi there
This guy is writing to you from Israel, I came across the phenomenon exactly the way that Richard described it at the top - while trying to install XP on a blank machine. Went to check the file - indeed distorted, replaced with the suggested xml text, burned everything into a new CD, boot the PC with new CD and BINGO! everything’s perfect.
All thanks to the good souls here - I especially want to express my gratitude to Richard who saved me a very nervous night.
One think I want to point out which was not mentioned before: all MS knowledge base links that people mentioned above point to articles that are not really relevant to the problem as described by Richard. When searching the database specifically for the “Manifest Parse error”, MS’s search engine *interestingly* finds you this thing:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;331881
I leave you all to see what’s MS’s suggestion in that case - definitely speaks for itself!
Cheers & GL!
HEELLPP!!!
This seems to be the only website i have found that has an idea of the sort of knowledge base to help me with my predicament. I was running on windows XP pro after updrading from ME. I foolishly took my PC into PC WORLD for it`s health check and had a new hard drive added. Perfect until i got it home. Firstly it was missing it`s SYSTEM32.Config file, now after deleting prtitions and reformating C: drive it will not let me reinstall XP saying that the C: Drive is corrupt and you cannot proceed with the installation. It will however let me install the Ghost CD of ME that came with my PC. I`m fed up with the crashes already with ME and want my XP pro back. Can anyone help???
Stuart