I/O Error installing game patches.

I've just recently started getting this and have no idea what to do. It started with Tribes 2. I also tried installing Half Life, no prob there until I tried installing the retail of CS on top of that then I get the I/O error. It says something to the effect of a bad or corrupt install media. I've formatted twice so far and have even gone back to Win2K at one point with the same result. I've scanned for virus and found nothing, as well as changing out my IDE cables. They were old and needed to be changed out anyway. I've also tried installing T2 or Half Life/ CS right after install with no luck either so I don't think it is a software conflict. I'm not sure what else it could be other than a dieing HDD or something up with the MOBO but wouldn't either of those also screw installing things all together and not just patching games? I've only experienced the problem patching those 2 games and had a slight problem that actually , now that I think about it, happened once with Dungeon Siege. Any input would be useful, please help.
Sorry for the run on but I'm at wits end here.

Edit: These are paid for retail versions of the games, none are copies. :)

I think its worth mentioning that you did format and reinstall the (an) OS on this machine. Definitely leaning towards a hardware issue here...

Beyond that I have no clue.

"Corrupt install media.." Sounds a lot like your cd has a scratch which is causing your installation file to be corrupt. Just a guess though.

W00 H00!!! I would like to thank RO in the tech channel in IRC. He reminded me to check my RAM settings in the BIOS and evidentally mine had been overclocked or something at some point. For some reason these settings only affected when I patched games and nothing else as everything else installed fine. Once I set everything back to default all games and patches installed flawlessly.

Thank you to anyone who has been trying to help me with this problem and especially to RO. Thnks guys. I can always count on someone in this community to help out. :)

TW Tech owns you.

Ro deserves ops in #Tech now.