Not trying to take away any work from the MSVP's but having gone thru that
same problem - here's what I learned.
My problem was the Sata drive controller was not supported by Vista until
after the Vista updates were done - and then Vista saw my Sata drives.
During the install of Vista, the installer uses a "generic" driver that
works for the Sata controller. Then when it went to the 1st reboot - that's
when the Vista (image) software takes over and of course not having a x64
Sata Sil 3132 driver for 64 bit - it crashed and burned......
I have found a x64 driver for the controller and will be putting that on a
floppy so that driver can be loaded when the Vista installer asks for
additional drivers.
That gives you an idea of "why" it hangs. The installer is different
software from the Vista image that gets loaded and when it kicks it - if it
doesn't have what it needs, you get error messages or hangs or both.
If you do not know what is causing the install to crash and burn then:
1. Minimize the hardware connected to the system. Remove any additional
cards installed (NIC's, sound cards, TV Tuners, game cards, etc.). You need
a graphics card, a hard drive, floppy (maybe) and a DVD along with your
memory.
2. If it still hangs - you've narrowed down the problem considerably. Start
turning off features in the BIOS such as serial ports, parallel ports, USB,
Firewire and leave only those settings need to have a minimal system. This
is for troubleshooting purposes only - and will help narrow down what
driver(s) may be needed.
3. How is the hard drive formatted? If its FAT 32 you need to convert to
NTFS but I would think the installer would catch that real early - but then
again...
4. If you have a spare hard drive, remove the hdd that is now in the system
and hang a formatted spare drive on as a test. Boot from the DVD and do a
clean install as a test. Yes - you can do a clean install with the Upgrade
package. Install Vista the first time and do not enter the key. Once it
installs (if you get that far), then do an in-place upgrade from Vista.
Insert the DVD, run the set-up, select the option for doing an in-place
upgrade and this time when it asks - enter the product key and uncheck the
automatic activation - do it manually is what everyone is saying.
Bob S.
