Can't install Vista Premium at all - HELP, Someone!!

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Tried installing Vista Home Premium upgrade to my WinXP Pro system. Vista
Upgrade Advisor said system fine for upgrade - custom-built Scan 3XS with
Asus P5WDH Deluxe MoBo, Core2Duo 6700 CPU, 2Gb RAM, GeForce 7950 GX2, WD
Raptor 80Gb HDD (2 partitions) & 500Gb Seagate HDD, et al - Advisor said
should be no problems upgrading with this hardware. However, when I tried to
do a clean install on a second 40Gb partition, keeping XP Pro on first
partition (am I glad I did?!) hoping to dual-boot - clean install is the only
option for upgrading XP Pro to Vista HP - it all went haywire! When Vista
Setup did its first reboot, it went into a loop and continuously rebooted
until I grabbed the 'Previous Version of Windows' option on the dual-boot
screen. I've been through every troubleshooting option I can find on the MS
support site - uninstalling AV & every possible hardware item that could
conflict, but nothing seems to get past this loop. Now I've given up and
want to revert back to WinXP, but I still can't get past the dual-boot
screen, which insists that it is still trying to 'Setup' Vista. Any advice
from you experienced Vista installers would be much appreciated - either to
get my Vista installation right, or to get rid of it and back to old XP
single-boot - I'm at the end of my tether! Thanks.
 
No Earthly Use said:
Tried installing Vista Home Premium upgrade to my WinXP Pro system. Vista
Upgrade Advisor said system fine for upgrade - custom-built Scan 3XS with
Asus P5WDH Deluxe MoBo, Core2Duo 6700 CPU, 2Gb RAM, GeForce 7950 GX2, WD
Raptor 80Gb HDD (2 partitions) & 500Gb Seagate HDD, et al - Advisor said
should be no problems upgrading with this hardware. However, when I tried
to
do a clean install on a second 40Gb partition, keeping XP Pro on first
partition (am I glad I did?!) hoping to dual-boot - clean install is the
only
option for upgrading XP Pro to Vista HP - it all went haywire! When Vista
Setup did its first reboot, it went into a loop and continuously rebooted
until I grabbed the 'Previous Version of Windows' option on the dual-boot
screen. I've been through every troubleshooting option I can find on the MS
support site - uninstalling AV & every possible hardware item that could
conflict, but nothing seems to get past this loop. Now I've given up and
want to revert back to WinXP, but I still can't get past the dual-boot
screen, which insists that it is still trying to 'Setup' Vista. Any advice
from you experienced Vista installers would be much appreciated - either to
get my Vista installation right, or to get rid of it and back to old XP
single-boot - I'm at the end of my tether! Thanks.
Click to expand...


If you will repost this monster with short, concise paragraphs, I will be more
than happy to respond more helpfully.
 
Sorry! It's my first time here, and I didn't realise things would look as
broken up as that.

I've tried installing Vista Home Premium upgrade to my WinXP Pro system.
Vista Upgrade Advisor said that my system was okay for upgrade.

It's a custom-built Scan 3XS with an Asus P5WDH Deluxe MoBo, Core2Duo 6700
CPU, 2Gb RAM, GeForce 7950 GX2, WD Raptor 80Gb HDD (with 2 equal partitions -
C: & D:) & a 500Gb Seagate SATA HDD, plus all the usual gubbins.

Vista Advisor said that there should be no problems upgrading with this
hardware, although it did mention a few drivers and software that I'd need to
update after installing Vista.

However, when I tried to do a clean install (the only option offered) on the
second 40Gb Raptor partition, keeping XP Pro on first partition (which I'm
really glad I did?!) hoping to dual-boot XP & Vista - it all went haywire!

When Vista Setup did its first reboot, it went into a loop and continuously
rebooted until I was able to select the 'Previous Version of Windows' option
on the dual-boot screen.

I've been through every troubleshooting option I can find on the MS support
site - uninstalling AV & every possible hardware item that could conflict,
but nothing seems to get past this loop.

Now I've given up (almost) and want to revert back to WinXP, but I still
can't get past the dual-boot screen, which insists that it is still trying to
'Setup' Vista.

Any advice from you experienced Vista installers would be greatly
appreciated - either to get my Vista installation setup correctly, or to get
rid of it and go back to my old faithful (and working) XP single-boot option.

Do I need to say it again? "I'm at the end of my tether!"

Hope that comes across better this time. Thanks.
 
Sorry! It's my first time here, and I didn't realise things would look as
broken up as that.

I've tried installing Vista Home Premium upgrade to my WinXP Pro system.
Vista Upgrade Advisor said that my system was okay for upgrade.

It's a custom-built Scan 3XS with an Asus P5WDH Deluxe MoBo, Core2Duo 6700
CPU, 2Gb RAM, GeForce 7950 GX2, WD Raptor 80Gb HDD (with 2 equal partitions -
C: & D:) & a 500Gb Seagate SATA HDD, plus all the usual gubbins.

Vista Advisor said that there should be no problems upgrading with this
hardware, although it did mention a few drivers and software that I'd need to
update after installing Vista.

However, when I tried to do a clean install (the only option offered) on the
second 40Gb Raptor partition, keeping XP Pro on first partition (which I'm
really glad I did?!) hoping to dual-boot XP & Vista - it all went haywire!

When Vista Setup did its first reboot, it went into a loop and continuously
rebooted until I was able to select the 'Previous Version of Windows' option
on the dual-boot screen.

I've been through every troubleshooting option I can find on the MS support
site - uninstalling AV & every possible hardware item that could conflict,
but nothing seems to get past this loop.

Now I've given up (almost) and want to revert back to WinXP, but I still
can't get past the dual-boot screen, which insists that it is still trying to
'Setup' Vista.

Any advice from you experienced Vista installers would be greatly
appreciated - either to get my Vista installation setup correctly, or to get
rid of it and go back to my old faithful (and working) XP single-boot option.

Do I need to say it again? "I'm at the end of my tether!"

Hope that comes across better this time. Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
NEU- I have the same problem as you.

My Vista advisor, and some other stuff says that an upgrade is fine.

When I try either an upgrade or a clean install, I reach a point (which
varies each time) that loops back to the window that wants my Serial Number.
or if I am lucky, and catch the reboot on time, lets me rollback the setup or
boot my old windows.

I am not sure why the other posters are not responding helpfully?

I was lucky, and made both an Acronis True Image BU, and a Reptrospect BU
prior to this frustrating install process, along with Resue Disks!!!!

Certainly, there is a MS guru that can address this in a more direct manner
than the useless posts I have seen so far?.
 
No Earthly Use said:
Sorry! It's my first time here, and I didn't realise things would look as
broken up as that.

I've tried installing Vista Home Premium upgrade to my WinXP Pro system.
Vista Upgrade Advisor said that my system was okay for upgrade.

It's a custom-built Scan 3XS with an Asus P5WDH Deluxe MoBo, Core2Duo 6700
CPU, 2Gb RAM, GeForce 7950 GX2, WD Raptor 80Gb HDD (with 2 equal
partitions -
C: & D:) & a 500Gb Seagate SATA HDD, plus all the usual gubbins.

Vista Advisor said that there should be no problems upgrading with this
hardware, although it did mention a few drivers and software that I'd need
to
update after installing Vista.

However, when I tried to do a clean install (the only option offered) on the
second 40Gb Raptor partition, keeping XP Pro on first partition (which I'm
really glad I did?!) hoping to dual-boot XP & Vista - it all went haywire!

When Vista Setup did its first reboot, it went into a loop and continuously
rebooted until I was able to select the 'Previous Version of Windows' option
on the dual-boot screen.

I've been through every troubleshooting option I can find on the MS support
site - uninstalling AV & every possible hardware item that could conflict,
but nothing seems to get past this loop.

Now I've given up (almost) and want to revert back to WinXP, but I still
can't get past the dual-boot screen, which insists that it is still trying
to
'Setup' Vista.

Any advice from you experienced Vista installers would be greatly
appreciated - either to get my Vista installation setup correctly, or to get
rid of it and go back to my old faithful (and working) XP single-boot
option.

Do I need to say it again? "I'm at the end of my tether!"
Click to expand...

That was much easier to follow, my friend. Thank you. These old eyes have
difficulty distinguishing thoughts in tightly-packed statements.


I'm sorry I have no "useful" answer at the minute, my friend.
Perhaps you could tell us which drivers the Vista Upgrade Advisor told you to
replace?

Also, a rather "foolish-sounding" question: Did you actually delete,
recreate, then format the partition you tried installing Vista on?

I really would like to help you install Vista, since it is a great OS.
I did not use an upgrade license to install Vista on my Dell. Didn't want to
wait for the next two months for Dell to get off the pot and send them out.
Instead, I purchased a System Builder Kit, wiped the drive, and created
partitions and installed Vista (with absolutely no problems at all.)

It is possible that some of the drivers (especially HD drivers and Video
drivers) are causing the failure to finish the install. It's also possible
that the drive you are attempting to install on has a few bad sectors.

Try wiping the drive next time you attempt to install Vista on it, after doing
a chkdsk /f on it.

BTW, I can't stand GeForce cards. I use ATI cards exclusively.

I'm also learning that the Upgrade Advisor is not always as critical as it
should be in its estimation of one's ability to upgrade with little trouble.
Personally, I've never been very successful in setting up an upgrade in such a
way that it would be stable afterward.

There is a big difference between the statements "should be able to" and
"will be able to", as I'm sure you know.

By the way, is your HD controller card a combined "SATA/PATA" card? Many have
been having problems with such cards.

Also, what's the date of your BIOS (and who makes it)?
 
Thanks for those ideas, Donald, I'll see if anything you've suggested will
help.

To answer your questions:

My first install attempt was to my Raptor D: partition (38Gb free) which had
a few files on it, but Setup said it would put these in a 'windows.old' file,
so I went ahead. On later attempts, I did wipe/reformat the partition, but
no change to the end-result. I will check the drive for errors and see what
that does - thanks.

The drivers that Advisor identified were a couple of Realtek audio drivers
(audio is onboard the mobo) but, as it said I could update these after
installing Vista, I went ahead. On later attempts, I disabled all the audio
and graphics drivers (setting them back to their default WIndows settings),
but no change.

I'm not quite sure what my HD controller card is. My Intel mobo has what it
calls a Serial ATA controller, but there is also a Marvel controller
mentioned in System Devices - there's no mention of PATA anywhere, so I don't
think it's got one, but I'm not that technical to know, sorry!

I think that I'll keep trying for a while - Vista does sound great, but it's
just a shame to have such a flaky introduction to it with this upgrade
process. Thnaks for your help.
 
Thanks for your support, Bob, and sorry that you've had similar problems.

To be honest, I'm desperate enough to accept help from anyone, no matter how
useless their posts may appear! It's just nice to know that you're not on
your own sometimes.

Thanks
 
BobT said:
NEU- I have the same problem as you.

My Vista advisor, and some other stuff says that an upgrade is fine.

When I try either an upgrade or a clean install, I reach a point (which
varies each time) that loops back to the window that wants my Serial
Number.
or if I am lucky, and catch the reboot on time, lets me rollback the setup
or
boot my old windows.

I am not sure why the other posters are not responding helpfully?

I was lucky, and made both an Acronis True Image BU, and a Reptrospect BU
prior to this frustrating install process, along with Resue Disks!!!!

Certainly, there is a MS guru that can address this in a more direct
manner
than the useless posts I have seen so far?.
Click to expand...

This is a peer to peer newsgroup, not official MS support. There are a
huge number of posts here many of which are very helpful with
troubleshooting tips and help. Search through them for a start.
 
No Earthly Use said:
Thanks for those ideas, Donald, I'll see if anything you've suggested will
help.

To answer your questions:

My first install attempt was to my Raptor D: partition (38Gb free) which had
a few files on it, but Setup said it would put these in a 'windows.old'
file,
so I went ahead. On later attempts, I did wipe/reformat the partition, but
no change to the end-result. I will check the drive for errors and see what
that does - thanks.

The drivers that Advisor identified were a couple of Realtek audio drivers
(audio is onboard the mobo) but, as it said I could update these after
installing Vista, I went ahead. On later attempts, I disabled all the audio
and graphics drivers (setting them back to their default WIndows settings),
but no change.

I'm not quite sure what my HD controller card is. My Intel mobo has what it
calls a Serial ATA controller, but there is also a Marvel controller
mentioned in System Devices - there's no mention of PATA anywhere, so I
don't
think it's got one, but I'm not that technical to know, sorry!

I think that I'll keep trying for a while - Vista does sound great, but it's
just a shame to have such a flaky introduction to it with this upgrade
process. Thnaks for your help.
Click to expand...


I'm sorry I couldn't help you any more (or at all), my friend. Hopefully,
someone will chip in some more useful information for you.
 
No Earthly Use said:
Thanks for your support, Bob, and sorry that you've had similar problems.

To be honest, I'm desperate enough to accept help from anyone, no matter how
useless their posts may appear! It's just nice to know that you're not on
your own sometimes.

Thanks
Click to expand...

You can check what drivers need updating at www.driveragent.com by using
their free scan. Then go to the vendors site for most current drivers to
download. It's best to have the latest WinXP drivers before installing Vista.

Too, could it be as simple as going into WinXP when you have that booted up
and reversing the drive letters so Vista can do its upgrade automatically
like it wants to do to the c: drive?? The dual booting process might be
causing problems.

In Vista I know you can change drive letters by right clicking COMPUTER (My
COMPUTER in WinXP) then clicking on MANAGE, then double clicking DISK
MANAGEMENT under STORAGE. When that area is shown, one can right click on a
volume detail window and choose "Change Drive Letters & Paths"

Perhaps if the partition you are loading Vista on is changed to c: and WinXP
changed to something esle, your installation will be accomplished. Not sure
this will work but understand you are searching for ideas. :)
 
Dear Ed, thanks for those suggestions - I'll go looking for the drivers and
update what I can. I'll also look at whether WinXP can manage drive letters
in that sophisticated way - I suspect not, but it would be worth a try.

Thanks for that - good ideas!
 
Ed Stoddard said:
You can check what drivers need updating at www.driveragent.com by using
their free scan. Then go to the vendors site for most current drivers to
download. It's best to have the latest WinXP drivers before installing
Vista.

Too, could it be as simple as going into WinXP when you have that booted up
and reversing the drive letters so Vista can do its upgrade automatically
like it wants to do to the c: drive?? The dual booting process might be
causing problems.

In Vista I know you can change drive letters by right clicking COMPUTER (My
COMPUTER in WinXP) then clicking on MANAGE, then double clicking DISK
MANAGEMENT under STORAGE. When that area is shown, one can right click on a
volume detail window and choose "Change Drive Letters & Paths"

Perhaps if the partition you are loading Vista on is changed to c: and WinXP
changed to something esle, your installation will be accomplished. Not sure
this will work but understand you are searching for ideas. :)
Click to expand...


Ed, that is a REALLY dangerous operation, changing the Boot drive letter.
1) Changing the Boot drive letter does NOT change references to that drive in
the Registry, AFAIK.
2) Nor does it change other references to that drive in various programs.

I certainly wouldn't do it. Better to simply take out Drive C:, then make
your secondary drive the Boot drive by making it the master, then installing
Windows on it.

Anyway, I don't believe it is even possible to change the drive letter of the
Boot drive.
 
No Earthly Use said:
Dear Ed, thanks for those suggestions - I'll go looking for the drivers and
update what I can. I'll also look at whether WinXP can manage drive letters
in that sophisticated way - I suspect not, but it would be worth a try.

Thanks for that - good ideas!
Click to expand...

Good luck on that one, friend. As I told Mr. Stoddard, that is VERY
DANGEROUS, and could make it not possible to boot Windows without completely
reinstalling it. You could also lose any user data on that drive.
 
Thanks for that warning, Donald. I couldn't see any simple way of doing this
in XP anyway, but I'm not going to risk crashing my system! I'll keep trying
with the other suggestions, but it's still not behaving itself.

Is it possible to install Vista in Safe Mode, or does it require all the
other gubbins to be loaded first? Just a thought that has crossed my (not
very bright!) mind.
 
No Earthly Use said:
Thanks for that warning, Donald. I couldn't see any simple way of doing
this
in XP anyway, but I'm not going to risk crashing my system! I'll keep
trying
with the other suggestions, but it's still not behaving itself.

Is it possible to install Vista in Safe Mode, or does it require all the
other gubbins to be loaded first? Just a thought that has crossed my (not
very bright!) mind.
Click to expand...


Since all retail versions of Vista can be installed "clean", the installer
does not need all the other "gubbins" -- Just working and compatible hardware.

Please, sir, don't short-change yourself. You have all the intelligenced
needed. This is just a NEW OS. There are ALWAYS problems when a new OS is
introduced, even for experts.

I just had a terrible problem getting my new Logitech MX 5000 Laser Desktop
installed. I kept downloading the wrong driver (and Logitech kept pointing me
to the wrong one). The ONLY difference between the two drivers was that one
was for computers with built-in Bluetooth, and one (the one I needed) was for
computers without built-Bluetooth. I assumed because Logitech pointed me to
the one I DIDN'T need that it was correct. One was named "setpoint330.bt"
(this one was for computers with built-in Bluetooth), and one was named
"setpoint330.br" (this was actually the one I needed). And Logitech said
nothing about this. You can imagine the terror and frustration I was feeling
toward the end.

In the end, its ALWAYS something simple like that. (My addition to Murphy's
Law).

Anyway, I hope you get it installed. Perhaps you could bring it to a local
tech with experience setting up computers for/with Vista? He would have the
machine right there, and would be able to have a better picture than we could.

Good Luck...
 
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