Can Not Revert back to XP After Installing VISTA RC1

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After installing Vista RC1, I was UNABLE to get online through my Linksys
Wireless router (had to go directly through dsl modem), onboard Soundmax
Audio AND Sounderblaster X-FI will not work with Vista.......................
VISTA IS VERY DISAPPOINTING SO FAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...........TOO MANY SECURITY
ISSUES THAT CANNOT BE CHANGED BY USER, the yellow bar won't leave custom
security settings the way YOU want them, it keeps prompting to fix the
security changes.
After installing Vista and VERY UNHAPPY WITH IT.........I tried to reinstall
XP 5 times and the message............ERROR READING DRIVE ........appears
after XP installation copies set up files and then restarts.
I CAN'T REINSTALL WINDOWS AND MY COMPUTER IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!
HELP!!!!!!!!..........PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Your computer is not dead. As the very last resort, you may have to format
your hard drive and then re-install XP. But if you are patient, it may be
easier for you to resolve many of the problems you see today in RC1. Many
who started the test at the Beta 2 stage had many night mares. I can tell
you that RC1 is more stable. But it took a lot of learning curves for me to
get to this stage. Good luck Eric.

Obi
 
Eric D said:
After installing Vista RC1, I was UNABLE to get online through my Linksys
Wireless router (had to go directly through dsl modem), onboard Soundmax
Audio AND Sounderblaster X-FI will not work with
Vista.......................
VISTA IS VERY DISAPPOINTING SO FAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...........TOO MANY
SECURITY
ISSUES THAT CANNOT BE CHANGED BY USER, the yellow bar won't leave custom
security settings the way YOU want them, it keeps prompting to fix the
security changes.
After installing Vista and VERY UNHAPPY WITH IT.........I tried to
reinstall
XP 5 times and the message............ERROR READING DRIVE ........appears
after XP installation copies set up files and then restarts.
I CAN'T REINSTALL WINDOWS AND MY COMPUTER IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!
HELP!!!!!!!!..........PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...


You may need to do a clean install of XP. Vista should only be installed on
a test system, not on a production machine.
 
When running XP setup, delete the existing system partition and then create
a new one from the resulting free space. Format, then proceed with the
installation.

Your router doesn't affect the connection so much as your network card does,
you may not have had the right settings. It only assigns the address in the
case of DHCP, or authenticates an assigned one (as long as it is within the
predetermined IP range).

Did you bother running the hardware compatibility check before installing
Vista?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Hey Guys!!! Thanks for the help, but, i HAVE reformatted my drive after the
VISTA failure, after the formatting, XP will copy the set up files and reboot
to continue the install, then just a black screen that reads......ERROR
READING DRIVE......
I have installed a spare drive and it accepts the XP install, the drive that
VISTA was on was configured as a slave, reformatted, and error checked,
everything reads ok.........then I configured that drive again as the master
and tried to install XP a 6th time, with the same error AGAIN.........VISTA
has apparently done SOMETHING that can't be fixed...............oh by the
way, I am not A+ certified YET, but I did just complete 3 cert prep courses
with a 97% overall grade, I do have a good idea as to what I am doing, but
not a quite a PRO just yet..............
My recommendation...........avoid VISTA until at least a year after its
release!!!!!!!
 
Thanks for the replies guys!!!!
Although I am not A+ certified YET, I did just pass the cert prep courses
with a 97% overall average, not a PRO yet, but I do have a good idea as to
what I am doing. I DID reformat the drive the after VISTA...5 times with each
XP install attempt, everytime after set up "copies files" and reboots to
acually install XP, the screen comes up black with the error "ERROR READING
DRIVE"........
VISTA has apparently done SOMETHING that can't be fixed........I installed a
small spare drive as master and installed XP without a glitch, configured the
drive VISTA was on as a slave, reformatted AGAIN, ran the disc check from
seagate AND windows, everything reads ok.......then configured that drive as
single/master and attempted XP install again.........AND AGAIN THE SAME ERROR
COMES UP!!!!!
I will not recommend VISTA, until at least a year after its
release!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Hey everyone, thanks for the help.......but......I DID reformat the drive
before trying to reinstall XP, after set up "copies set up files" and reboots
to actually install XP, the screen goes black and reads..."ERROR READING
DRIVE"....this happened 5 times. I installed a spare drive a the master and
the "vista drive" as a slave, I reformatted it AGAIN and ran seagate's error
check as well as windows error checking, everything reads ok and that the
drive is active and healthy. I then reconfigured the "vista drive" as a
single/master and attempted to install XP again, and the same error STILL
HAPPENS. I don't know what VISTA did to my drive, but it WILL NOT allow XP to
be installed again.
NOTE: although I am not A+ certified YET, I did just pass the cert prep
courses with a 97% average, so although I am not a PRO yet, I do have a good
idea as to what I am doing.
VISTA simply has too many bugs and too early for software/hardware support
that WORKS!!!! After the beta 2 release and now RC1, neither of which are
worth a crap, I will not attempt installing VISTA until the official release
has been tried and proven for at least a year!!!!!!!!
So........on that note.....does anyone have any other suggestions........any
clue why a brand new 400 gig Seagate SATA HDD will not accept an XP
installation after installing VISTA?
 
Eric,

What kind of NIC is in your PC? Laptop, I assume? I've got a Dell Latitude
D620 with a Broadcom NIC and it does drop sometimes, but it works. And I
have a Linksys WR54G router.

I installed RC1 on 3 PC's without issue. I have one PC that RC1 will not
install on. If I had only tried RC1 on the one computer on which it will not
install, then I'd be unhappy too. But just because you're having problems
doesn't mean RC1 is giving everyone fits.

In one of your later posts, you say the drive has been error checked. How?

Lang
 
Eric D said:
Hey Guys!!! Thanks for the help, but, i HAVE reformatted my drive after
the
VISTA failure, after the formatting, XP will copy the set up files and
reboot
to continue the install, then just a black screen that reads......ERROR
READING DRIVE......
I have installed a spare drive and it accepts the XP install, the drive
that
VISTA was on was configured as a slave, reformatted, and error checked,
everything reads ok.........then I configured that drive again as the
master
and tried to install XP a 6th time, with the same error
AGAIN.........VISTA
has apparently done SOMETHING that can't be fixed...............oh by the
way, I am not A+ certified YET, but I did just complete 3 cert prep
courses
with a 97% overall grade, I do have a good idea as to what I am doing, but
not a quite a PRO just yet..............
My recommendation...........avoid VISTA until at least a year after its
release!!!!!!!
Click to expand...


Get a zero fill utility and write zeros to the drive, then install.
 
Reformatting is NOT good enough. You have to delete the partition that Vista
was installed upon. Then create a new partition in the free space (with the
Windows XP installer) and format said partition. Then you will be able to
install XP again.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Eric D said:
After installing Vista RC1, I was UNABLE to get online through my Linksys
Wireless router (had to go directly through dsl modem), onboard Soundmax
Audio AND Sounderblaster X-FI will not work with
Vista.......................
VISTA IS VERY DISAPPOINTING SO FAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...........TOO MANY
SECURITY
ISSUES THAT CANNOT BE CHANGED BY USER, the yellow bar won't leave custom
security settings the way YOU want them, it keeps prompting to fix the
security changes.
After installing Vista and VERY UNHAPPY WITH IT.........I tried to
reinstall
XP 5 times and the message............ERROR READING DRIVE ........appears
after XP installation copies set up files and then restarts.
I CAN'T REINSTALL WINDOWS AND MY COMPUTER IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!
HELP!!!!!!!!..........PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...


I've read all the replies, I just thought I'd reply directly to this post.

I seriously doubt Vista "did something to your drive" that's causing this
issue. Vista uses a hard drive the same way any operating system does,
through the controller on the drive. It doesn't flash the firmware or alter
the low-level mapping of the drive in any way, so there's some other issue
with the drive or some other aspect of your system that is causing this
problem.

As suggested, use a utility to zero the drive completely (or even just try a
full format instead of a quick format) and see if that works.

You said in another reply that you've run tests on the drive and it comes up
as fine, was this a quick test or did you run a full test? Did you try
several different tests on the drive? This may sound silly, but try another
data cable and/or another SATA connector on the card/board as well.

I'm also extremely confused as to how you've set an SATA drive to
"single/master", there are no jumpers (or anything else) for doing this on
an SATA drive . . . one drive per cable, therefore; no need, or way to, set
slave/master.

What is the make/model of your SATA card (or South Bridge) that the SATA
drive is connected to? It could be a problem with the SATA drivers (if
needed) when installing XP. If they are somehow corrupted, XP may show the
files being copied (initially) to the drive, then when it reboots it can't
read the drive because it's not able to load the SATA drivers properly. You
would expect an error message telling you just that, but it could happen
that it just skips the drivers and then tells you it can't read the drive.

As to your problems with Vista, I've been using it since Beta 2 (yes, many
problems there and spent more time in XP than Vista) but since RC1 has come
out I'm having no more problems with it than I did with Windows XP when it
first came out to retail sale.
I also have an X-Fi that, while not 100% functional seems to work just fine
for basic sound, games and movies (even the 5.1 speaker setting works with
my DVDs in Media Center). Did you download the drivers from Creative?
There are no drivers included with Vista, so if you didn't, there's your
reason for the card not working.

One warning, avoid the ATi drivers like the plague, the few I've talked to
that they worked at all for said they work much slower than the drivers
included with Vista. Only applicable if you have an ATi video card, that
is. ;-)

Since installing Windows Vista RC1 I've not booted into XP once. I
downloaded and installed RC1 the day it came out and in all this time I've
had it working just fine (my analog modem doesn't work, but thankfully I'm
using an 8Mb cable connection for Internet and have no imperative need for
the fax on the modem, at the moment.)

The only real issue I'm having is with the monitor turning off (not turning
off, actually) and standby (no going into standby) when I have any screen
saver set to display, but I can live with this for now.

Oh, and I'm not A+ certified either, but I finished school with a 4.0 GPA
and have a degree in Electronics and Computer Engineering. Also scored 99%
on pre-test prep exams for the A+ exam, both parts. (I just don't have the
money to take it right now), but simply stating these things only tells you
I went to school and did well, not that I actually know what I'm doing. :-)
Just thought I'd add that so you don't get bent when people tell you to try
things that you've already, or think you've already, tried because you "know
what you're doing".

Mic
 
Richard Urban said:
Reformatting is NOT good enough. You have to delete the partition that
Vista was installed upon. Then create a new partition in the free space
(with the Windows XP installer) and format said partition. Then you will
be able to install XP again.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
Click to expand...


I've simply done a quick format on the drive and installed XP after
installing Vista, perhaps this is an issue with certain drives.

I have a Maxtor 160 gig drive (SATA) and a Seagate 120 gig drive (SATA) and
have used both for Vista and XP and not had to delete the partitions to get
either to install properly.

However, these are the only two drives I've used in this way, so I'm not
saying you're wrong, I'm simply pointing out that there are drives you don't
have to remove the partition to get XP installed after Vista has been
intimate with the drive. :-)

Mic
 
After reading all the responses I still don't see where you have tried what
many people have suggested - delete the partition and during the XP install
create a new one. After many thousands of installs of Windows and other
operating systems I have learned that it is always best to let the OS you
are going to use on a partition create the partition. Whenever I am doing a
clean install the first order of business is to overwrite track 0
effectively erasing the drive. If you are going to multi boot then during
the first OS install create a partition leaving the rest of the drive
unallocated. During the next OS install create another partition for this OS
leaving unallocated space for the next OS, etc. etc. In particular older OS'
often don't like partitions created by newer OS'. If you are going to
install more than 4 OS' (the limit for partitions) then you really need more
drives :-)
 
As Woody stated in the other thread "Did you hit F6 and install your SATA
driver during XP install?
 
Must be M/B dependent then. I have a 160 gig Seagate SATA drive on an ASUS
A7N8X 2.0 Deluxe M/B and I can not install Vista unless I go through the
delete/create/format scenario. This is whether I try to reinstall to a
partition already created by Vista RC1 or install clean to a partition that
has already been created/formatted by Partition Magic 8.01.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!



 
Oops! Left out a bit here.

A redo:

Must be M/B dependent then. I have a 160 gig Seagate SATA drive on an ASUS
A7N8X 2.0 Deluxe M/B and I can not install Vista unless I go through the
delete/create/format scenario. This is whether I try to reinstall to a
partition already created by Vista RC1 or install clean to a partition that
has already been created/formatted by Partition Magic 8.01.

It may be that your combination is balking in the "other" direction!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Sounds to me like there are some bad sectors on the drive and a coincidence
that it showed while dealing with Vista.
 
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