Vista will not boot - work around

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Urban
  • Start date Start date
This newsgroup deals with Windows Mail problems.
For your issue, try microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup.

Gary VanderMolen
 
I suffered this problem and found the solution below worked, but having to
reinstall Vista several times to get past other problems, I found this
problem may be related to how Vista formats drives:

Up until now, there is typically only one Primary partition on a disk.
(Vista can have three primary partitions on one disk.) All other drives are
Logical or Extended. Logical and Extended drives have an 8MB leader that is
unallocated for use under XP. Vista appears to assign a 2MB leader to Logical
or Extended drives.

If you attempt to install Vista to a machine with multiple drives where the
additional drives are previously formatted under an older (XP) system, then
the 8MB leader can confuse Vista.

If you do not need the information on these other drives, use Vista's format
facility during install to format these other drives prior to installing
Vista. If you need to retain the information, then move the partitions after
installation (by Richard's method) to save the data, convert the drives to
Simple partitions and move the data back to this drive. Then, next time you
need to install Vista, the drives will not cause an installation problem.

(See Richard Urbans method at the first posting.)
 
I'm repeating some of Richard's comments and adding a few based on my
experience:
0) Backup all your data files!
1) Remove all additional cards. (Basically, anything with memory.)
For example: If you have on-board video and a video card, remove the
video card.
2) Remove all USB devices (plug in a PS2 mouse.)
3) Verify your BIOS is the most recent revision. Update if necessary.
4) If you have more than one partition on your one drive, use Disk
Management in Vista and that none of the partitions are Logical or Extended
partitions.
5) Perform a clean install of Vista. During the process, if possible, remove
all partitions and make the drive a single Primary (Simple) partition with
the Vista utility.
(If you have an upgrade disk, you'll have to perform the "clean install"
without the Product ID and re-install immediately upon completion as an
"upgrade".)
6) Use Vista's Disk Management utility to partition the drive as needed.
Then, restore your data files. (Do not restore a backup that restores
partitions.)
 
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In case you didn't notice, this thread is posted outside of the Mail group
 
I have a 250 GB Hard Driver partitioned into 'c' Drive and 'j' Drive. My
Windows Vista is on the 'c' Drive. I attempted to re-install good old
Windows XP Pro onto the totally empty and formatted 'j' Drive. Windows XP
Setup aborted itself and the computer went into Restart. It refused to boot
up. Black screen with message "Errors loading Operating System".
I tried to boot up using my Vista CD in order to attempt System
Repair/Recovery. That did not work and my only option was to perform a full
Vista install. So now I have two Vista's on my computer and showing in the
dual boot screen as the computer boots up. The second option appears to be
my original Vista.
What can I do to eliminate the unwanted Vista from the boot up process to
restore my computer to exactly the way it was before beginning my attempt to
re-install the XP.
I am not exactly a novice but neither am I experienced. Until I get this
problem sorted, I am keeping m computer on 24/7
 
Wrong newsgroup. Please post this issue in microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup.

Gary VanderMolen
 
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