Cannot install Vista on a rebuilt computer

  • Thread starter Thread starter bob.beaupre
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bob.beaupre

After a PSU/Motherboard problem, my computer has been rebuilt with a
new mother board. I'm now trying to reinstall Vista.
I've given up trying to install to an existing partition on he hard
drive (where the system was previously) as the previous system there
cannot be recognised even though all the files could be read when the
drive was loaded to another machine.
I have used diskpart to clear down the disk and have reformatted it to
a single 75GB partition. It is the only disk on the system, but when
I try to install Vista I first get the message 'This computer's
hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure disk controller
is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu' and then 'Windows is unable to
find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation'.
I have looked at KB925481, but that refers to there being multiple
disks which is not the case here.

Winfast Motherboard MCP61SM2MA-ERS2H (not ERS2HV - could that be
important?)

Regards
Bob
 
Have to set the Bios to boot from the CD/DVD Drive, with the Vista Disk
inserted there?
Then after it boots up, follow directions to delete existing Vista
partition, formatt the whole drive and install Vista?
 
Thank you Mick, but unfortunately not very helpful.

As I said, I have already reformatted the drive. What I cannot do is
install Vista! Instead I get the message as above.
 
Thank you Mick, but unfortunately not very helpful.

As I said, I have already reformatted the drive. What I cannot do is
install Vista! Instead I get the message as above.

There is no "message above" as you failed to quote any part of the message
thread.
 
In
After a PSU/Motherboard problem, my computer has been rebuilt
with a
new mother board. I'm now trying to reinstall Vista.
I've given up trying to install to an existing partition on
he hard
drive (where the system was previously) as the previous
system there
cannot be recognised even though all the files could be read
when the
drive was loaded to another machine.
I have used diskpart to clear down the disk and have
reformatted it to
a single 75GB partition. It is the only disk on the system,
but when
I try to install Vista I first get the message 'This
computer's
hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure disk
controller
is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu' and then 'Windows is
unable to
find a system volume that meets its criteria for
installation'.
I have looked at KB925481, but that refers to there being
multiple
disks which is not the case here.

Winfast Motherboard MCP61SM2MA-ERS2H (not ERS2HV - could
that be
important?)

Regards
Bob

Any USB drives or card readers connected while you're trying to
install Vista? How about a printer with a card reader? The only
items that should be connected are the mouse, keyboard, and
monitor. See if any of the information in these articles is
helpful.

Error message when you try to install Windows Vista: "Windows
is unable to find a system volume which meets its criteria for
installation"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938984

You cannot select or format a hard disk partition when you try
to install Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927520

What exactly was the nature of your "PSU/Motherboard problem"?
I'm guessing that you're using the same HDD from the earlier
installation. Have you run any tests to check the integrity of
this drive? A PSU failure can do some serious damage to any
component connected to it including a HDD. Any chance of trying
the install on a different HDD?

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
Seth said:
There is no "message above" as you failed to quote any part of the message
thread.
The message he gets is

'Windows is unable to
find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation'.

as he stated in his first post which is above his last post.

Tom Lake
 
dont you have the cd that came with the hard drive.to help you format the
drive..vista takes up a lot of room.on a hard drive and its going for a ton
of updates after you get it working..so it needs room to exspand...
 
In






Any USB drives or card readers connected while you're trying to
install Vista? How about a printer with a card reader? The only
items that should be connected are the mouse, keyboard, and
monitor. See if any of the information in these articles is
helpful.

Error message when you try to install Windows Vista: "Windows
is unable to find a system volume which meets its criteria for
installation"http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938984

You cannot select or format a hard disk partition when you try
to install Windows Vistahttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/927520

What exactly was the nature of your "PSU/Motherboard problem"?
I'm guessing that you're using the same HDD from the earlier
installation. Have you run any tests to check the integrity of
this drive? A PSU failure can do some serious damage to any
component connected to it including a HDD. Any chance of trying
the install on a different HDD?

Good luck

Nepatsfan

Thanks Nepatsfan. Here's more clarity over what I have done.

I cleaned the hard disk using 'diskpart clean all', as described in kb
927520 (running diskpart from the Vista installation dvd). Then I
formatted the drive/partition from the installation disk. diskpart
confirms that I now have partition 1 on disk 0, and no other volumes,
disks or partitions.

I've set the hard disk to be the first option in the boot list, the
others being cd/dvd and floppy, but to no avail. Nothing other than
keyboard, mouse and monitor is attached.

The exact problem originally I'm unsure of, other than the on/off
switch flickered and then stayed off. In retrospect I'm not sure how
badly damaged the motherboard was, as after the repairer returned the
rebuilt machine I had to take it back to get the PSU replaced, which
he hadn't done. The disk drive worked ok when attached to another
machine, and data were taken from it, but with the new motherboard in
place the repairer was unable to do anything with Vista.
The machine is (was) an HP Pavilion 763.uk (P4, 2.6). But as a result
of this incident I'm left with the original case, firewire card, DVD
rewriter drive and HDD. Everything else is new (and cheap).

The more I think this through, the more it seems to come down to a
compatibility issue with the motherboard / BIOS. Otherwise I'd expect
to see more posts around the web describing the situation.
 
Resolved. When the repairer put the system together, he put in a new
PSU that is larger than the original, and left little space between
PSU and CD drives. One strand of one cable had become pinched, and
for some reason was causing the problem! Replacing that cable was the
solution. Odd that it gave such a specific error while most other
things worked, but that was it.

Thanks to all who replied and gave help in this; much appreciated.
 
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