Installation fails on trying to dual boot with XP Pro on a SATA d

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I have an Abit KN8 Ultra motherboard, an IDE Maxtor DMP 9 PATA drive as slave
in IDE 2 and a Maxtor DMP 10 SATA drive in SATA 1 (the first available SATA
slot). The computer boots XP Pro 32-bit from the SATA drive's first, 'active'
partition, C: ('system'). Other partitions on it are D:, E: and H: (20 GB
free) all of the type 'Basic'. The PATA drive is just a single partition for
backups, with 6 GB available.

When booting from the Vista 64-bit DVD (It's a 64-bit CPU ;)), the empty 20
GB NTFS partition H: is recognised in the target list (for installation), but
when I proceed to install I am told Vista needs a valid system volume to
work, and that enough space has been found on disk 1, on the partition with 6
GB space left. The installation then fails with an unspecified error and
refuses to install to the perfectly good, empty H: partition.

Do I need to set H: as the active partition or is there some other blatantly
obvious step I am missing? I have tried installing the storage driver for the
SATA drive in the 'Load Driver' option in the Vista installer but it did not
work as neither the 32-bit nor the 64-bit drivers were recognised.

Also, if I set H: as active, I imagine I will not be able to boot to XP
without setting C: active first (which I'd have to do from XP..), is this
correct?
 
you need a 40 g drive partition to setup vista, the minimum i found to work
was 38 gigs.

steve
 
I have an Abit KN8 Ultra motherboard, an IDE Maxtor DMP 9 PATA drive as slave
in IDE 2 and a Maxtor DMP 10 SATA drive in SATA 1 (the first available SATA
slot). The computer boots XP Pro 32-bit from the SATA drive's first, 'active'
partition, C: ('system'). Other partitions on it are D:, E: and H: (20 GB
free) all of the type 'Basic'. The PATA drive is just a single partition for
backups, with 6 GB available.

When booting from the Vista 64-bit DVD (It's a 64-bit CPU ;)), the empty 20
GB NTFS partition H: is recognised in the target list (for installation), but
when I proceed to install I am told Vista needs a valid system volume to
work, and that enough space has been found on disk 1, on the partition with 6
GB space left.
Click to expand...

The reason you see this is because Vista setup does not see an active
primary partition on the system drive (the one that the BIOS boots
from). Is the PATA drive first in the list of drives in BIOS setup
under Hard Disk Boot Priority?
The installation then fails with an unspecified error and
refuses to install to the perfectly good, empty H: partition.
Click to expand...

In order for the installation to proceed, two conditions must be
satisfied: 1) the primary partition on the system drive must be active
and formatted, and 2) the partition that Vista will be installed in
must be formatted.
Do I need to set H: as the active partition or is there some other blatantly
obvious step I am missing? I have tried installing the storage driver for the
SATA drive in the 'Load Driver' option in the Vista installer but it did not
work as neither the 32-bit nor the 64-bit drivers were recognised.

Also, if I set H: as active, I imagine I will not be able to boot to XP
without setting C: active first (which I'd have to do from XP..), is this
correct?
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
Ah thanks, I see. So it has to be the active partition. I didn't think it
needed it as from experience, XP 64-bit will install to a non-active primary
partition.

It's the SATA drive that was first in the Hard Disk Boot Priority because
the installation of XP Pro 32-bit that booted fine was booting from there.
The PATA drive was nothing more than a data backup drive.

I have subsequently set up dual booting XP Pro 32-bit and 64-bit from the
PATA drive and put it first in the BIOS HDBP. Once I get around to giving
Vista another go I trust setting the partition active will help.

:

....
---

Could you please refer me to your source on this. The only reference to 40
GB and Vista I found was
"40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space." (What is a Windows
Vista Capable PC?, A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least,
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx). This merely
states that a PC with Vista preinstalled on it and labeled as above, will be
provided with a 40 GB hard disk, it makes no reference to it being an actual
minimum spec. I apologise for sounding a tad sceptical, but I find it
unrealistic that a ~4 GB Vista DVD would require a 40 GB hard disk to install.

:

....

Thank you both for replies!
 
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