Can't dual boot Vista Home Premium & Win XP Pro

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Guest

As a home computer builder, I recently purchased an OEM version of Vista
Home Premium that I plan to install as a dual boot operating system with
Windows XP Pro.
I ran the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0, which indicated that the Tekram
SCSI controller (Tekram DC-395U/UW/F, DC-315/U or DC-305I/E PCI Ultra SCSI
Host Adapter V3.0.3) for my Iomega 100 Zip drive will not work in Vista. So
far, I have been unable to install Vista in dual boot mode. I start the
installation, but on the first reboot I get the message “DISK READ ERROR,
press Ctrl/Alt/Del to restart". Pressing Ctrl/Alt/Del only restarts the
install process but encounters the Disk Read Error again on the first reboot.
At that point, it becomes necessary to restore an image of my Windows XP
partition in order to enable booting into Windows XP. Is it possible that
the Tekram SCSI controller is preventing the installation?
Vista Upgrade advisor found no other problems except for Realtek audio which
can be fixed with a driver upgrade.
I have two SATA hard drives installed, a Western Digital WDC
WD1600JS-55MHB1 as the boot drive, and a Western Digital @DC WD
2500KS-00MJBO. I have heard that there could be a problem installing Vista
dual booting on SATA hard drives.
Please advise as to how I may successfully install the Vista Home Premium in
a dual boot mode.
Thank you,
 
I attempted to upgrade the WD SATA drivers, but Windows said that there were
no better drivers than the one(s) that were in use provided by Microsoft. My
MOBO is an Asus A8N5X, and will check whether there are SATA drivers
available from Asus.
 
I have contacted Asus Tech support requesting driver download information on
WD SATA internal drives.
 
I've been to the link you provided, but I'm not sure which download to try.
Is it this one: nVidia Chipset(CK804) driver version V6.65 for Windows
XP(WHQL)? .
 
I downloaded nVidia Chipset(CK804) driver version V6.65 for Windows
XP(WHQL), however I don't believe there are SATA drivers there. At least,
Windows couldn't find a driver update in that download. I'm wondering
whether it's a driver problem at all, as the problem of “DISK READ ERROR,
press Ctrl/Alt/Del to restart" occurs during boot up, not within Windows. I
see that the Chipset drivers are dated 7-27-2005, whereas my Asus A8N5X MB
was purchased in December 2006,... if that makes any difference.

In any event, John, I appreciate your contribution to this post.
--
bobbo


bobbo said:
I've been to the link you provided, but I'm not sure which download to try.
Is it this one: nVidia Chipset(CK804) driver version V6.65 for Windows
XP(WHQL)? .
Click to expand...
 
You are getting the disk read error because you had a second (an IDE hard
drive) connected when you installed Vista on your SATA drive. Am I correct?

Disconnect the 2nd, 3rd, 4th drives (all drives you are not installing Vista
to) and install Vista to the SATA drive. Boards with the Nvidia chipsets are
vulnerable to this anomaly.

After a successful boot into Vista, shut down and reconnect your other
drives. All will be well.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)
 
Hello Richard, thanks for your input.

I don't have any IDE hard drives in my system, however I do have IDE DVD/CD
and IDE DVD/CD/RW drives in my system (one each). Once apon a time, I
cloned an IDE to a SATA drive using Acronis True Image, but I have done two
or three clean installs of Win XP Pro since then. I also have an external
USB HD. I also have a Tekram SCSI controller for an old internal Zip 100
drive. It's been suggested to pull the plug on the zip drive, which will be
part of my next attempt.

I haven't been able to get past the first restart when attempting to install
Vista; it always stops, displaying the disk read error.
 
Two things:

1. You may need to have the SATA drivers available on a floppy disk or a
CD so they can be installed upon booting.

2. Are you using the latest version of TrueImage? Only the latest
versions are truly 100% compatible with Vista.

I constantly restore my SATA drive from a .tib image and have no problems at
all.

--


Regards,

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


Richard Urban said:
Two things:

1. You may need to have the SATA drivers available on a floppy disk or a
CD so they can be installed upon booting.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how to do this when the install stops with the "Disk read
error, press Ctrl/Alt/Del to restart" message.
2. Are you using the latest version of TrueImage? Only the latest
versions are truly 100% compatible with Vista.
Click to expand...

Yes, Ver 10.0, Build 4942.
 
Since your disk is being seen during setup, what are you doing? Have you
tried to delete the partition and reformat (advanced option) during the
setup. Has this disk per chance ever been formatted FAT32? Are you
formatting the disk NTFS?
 
I haven't tried to delete or format a partition. All drives are formatted
NFTS. I just found a lot of unallocated space on my second drive and I
formatted it NFTS and will attempt to install Vista in that partition. Am
also looking for Windows XP SATA Controller drivers to have on hand.
 
No. Windows XP drivers are not compatible. Delete the partition you are
going to install Vista on and recreate it, then in advanced, reformat it
NTFS. See if that works. The disk read error is usually associated with an
incompatible partition boot sector. You might search the knowledge base and
see if any items seem to fit. http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
 
Hello John, I created a new partition on my second HD and attempted to
install Vista there, but ran into the same DISK READ ERROR, press
Ctrl/Alt/Del to restart". However on inspecting the new partition, I find
that Vist has written a number of files there. Is it conceivable that I can
fix the partition boot sector on C: using DiskBootPro that would enable
booting?
 
What exactly is your disk layout? What systems are on your drive (s) and
what are the system (active) partitions. Have you updated your BIOS?
You found your Vista files where they should be, but on which partition are
the boot files being written. If you have XP installed, you may be able to
install VistaBootPro or EasyBCD to analyse and repair the booting process.
 
My boot drive has C:\Windows XP Pro SP2, plus D:, E: and F: partitions.
Second drive has G: H: I: J: and K: (K: is the newly formatted partition and
has the Vista files.
BIOS is the latest version.
I can try VistaBootPro, but have no idea whether it will work.
 
If you can still boot into windows XP, Vista has put the boot files
somewhere else. I suggest that you delete all the files on the K drive (if
you can, but not totally necessary) from XP. Make K the active partition.
Then turn off the machine and disconnect your XP drive. Boot to the Vista
DVD and install Vista to the K drive without deleting but do reformat. See
what happens with this approach.
 
Looking again at your second drive, you have 5 partitions, so at least 2 are
logical, and I assume K is one of them. Therefore you will not be able to
make it an active drive. What are the formats of your Primary partitions on
your second drive and what is on the partitions? What brand of drive is it.
I had a Hitachi that I couldn't install a bootable system on. Was only
usable as a data drive.
 
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