Install ail - help please

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Guest

I am a PC salesman and want to get feel for Vista before I am expected to
start selling Vista based systems. I want a dual boot so I can use my
existing XP home system (fully updated) when I am not ‘playing’ with Vista.

I tried – and failed – any advice – help appreciated. – it’s a long story.

I downloaded RC1 and burned a DVD and backed up my system
I used Partition manager to re-organise my disk and created an empty 50Gb
(Drive G:) primary partition. I also have ‘Recovery’ (primary) and a Dive C
(primary, active) and an extended partition with 3 logical drives. Tested and
XP still OK.

I ran the Vista install, selecting to install in the G partition, with
update enabled.
Vista installed and as part of the install created a dual-boot menu
Selecting Vista worked and Vista was functional – some driver issues with
Sound, TV and wireless net card but these are unimportant at this stage as I
rarely use them.

After having a ‘play’ I shutdown in order to re-boot in XP. I selected the
‘Old Windows System’ option from the boot menu.
Error – white text on black screen – ‘<windows root>\system32\hal.dll
missing or corrupt’
Tried again – same, Tried selecting Vista – OK
Now what?
Tried using backup boot recovery to recover drive C backup. Completed
Tried re-boot – same problem.
Decided to re-install from XP CD
Boot – blue screen of death – ‘stop’ error – caused by pci.sys.

Used DOS/FDISK to remove C and G partitions Tried install again – same.
Removed ALL partitions – same.

Used old Norton DISKEDIT utility to write all ‘00H’ to physical sector 0 –
same result.

Used PC manufacturers recovery CD – this detected corrupt sector 0, rebuilt
partions and recovered to original shipping state. From here I was able to
re-partition and recover my backups – now XP is working again
 
I am only taking a wild guess, here, but the troubles may have started
because you chose "Upgrade" and then selected a different partition for the
installation. If you were going to Dual-boot, perhaps "Custom" was the
better choice.
 
Perhaps I wasnt clear - I choose 'Custom' and then Drive G:. I Turned on the
feature to allow Vista to 'Upgrade' during installation.

Allan
 
You do not use upgrade when you are installing to a new and empty partition.
You do a clean install, and it is better to do this by booting up from the
DVD you create from the .iso file you downloaded.

--

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!
 
Perhaps I misunderstood - the tick box clearly said Vista will remain
connected to the internet during the installation and find any necessary
updates - theres the key -
I used the term 'upgrade' - I meant 'update' - sorry for any confusion.

So I didn't select Upgrade - which mans I diod it correctly - and had this
problem

Allan
 
I know it may a petty issue, but one does not
"create" a bootable DVD from the .iso file. One
"burns image to disc" to create the DVD. The
wording could confuse some people about how to
transfer their .iso to CD or DVD.
 
Where did I say "create a bootable DVD"?

I said, boot from the DVD you create from the .iso file.

That is a huge difference in terminology.

--

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!
 
I booted DVD as instructed and ran a new clean install and lo and behold - it
worked
Thanks
 
It is not my intention to offend you, but to me,
in the context you presented "booting up from
the DVD you create from the .iso file you
downloaded" implies "to make" a bootable DVD
from the .iso file. There have been quite a few
people who have tried "to make" a bootable DVD
from the .iso file by extracting the files and
'making', or creating, a bootable DVD. The
results were that the DVD would not boot.

When one "burns the image to DVD" you actually
only transfer the image from one location to
another. Perhaps it is somewhat about
semantics, but I have seen the results.

Apologize if I offended you.
 
No offense taken.

But, you can not make the DVD from the .iso file without it NOT being
bootable, can you?

--

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!
 
Glad YOU understood what I was saying. (-:

Glad to be of help.

--

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!
 
Yes. Several people have used WinRAR and
MagicISO to extract the files from the .ISO and
then copy the files to a DVD. The result was
they had nothing more than a data DVD that would
not boot. People also did the same thing with
Win x64 .ISO downloads to a CD and also had
nothing more than a data CD that would not boot.

You can also get a non-bootable CD/DVD by not
using the "Burn Image to Disc" as many have done
before. If it can be done wrong, you can bet
someone will figure out how to do it!
 
For gosh sakes! Lets stop this now.

That is NOT the way Microsoft tells you to do it. Microsoft wants the DVD to
be bootable - just as if you purchased it from a retail store. They tell you
how to burn the DVD from the .iso and, I believe, they even tell you a
couple of applications to use in the process.

End of case.

--

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!
 
But, there are a lot of people who either can't
read so they don't follow the instruction, or
they may read the instructions only if all else
fails. Apparently there are quite a few who
never read the instructions because they come to
these news groups crying their CD or DVD doesn't
work. So, even though it would be nice to close
the case, you can bet it won't be. Ask other
MVPs and you will find the problem is quite
prevalent. I guess it human nature.
 
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