Help Installing Vista!

T

Taipans

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 16, 2006
Messages
66
Here is my setup,

AMD 64 X2 5200+ Windsor socket AM2
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe, Nvidia NForce 570
EVGA GeForce 8800GTX 768mb GDDR3 Super Overclocked HDCP
OCZ Platinum Rev 2 (4x1Gb) 240 Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 4-4-4-15 timing
Thermaltake TR2 500watt PSU V 2.0
HD1 : WD Raptor 150GB 10k RPM 16mb Cache ATA 150
HD2 : Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA (perpendicular Recording)
Creative Sound Blaster X-fi
Onboard NIC
Logitech G5
Microsoft Natural Elite
37" Westinghouse HD Monitor

I tried to install Vista Home Premium 64-bit and I cannot get past the format drive screen? I finally got it to boot up and see my primary SATA drive, I created a partition, and then hit the "format" button. But NOTHING happens... I have tried a half dozen times but cannot get Vista to format the drive at all... If anyone knows why please let me know!

Thank you!
 
Try cleaning the disk with diskpart.

Boot to your Vista DVD. Select repair -> next -> open command prompt.

Type diskpart
select disk 0
clean
exit
exit

Then reboot and restart installation.

more info on diskpart: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415/

(another possibility is making sure your primary partition is set active - also done via diskpart)
 
When I did that, the format part flashed for a second and then was gone. It appeared to format it while doing the install. I don't know if that is right or not, but it's how it appeared.
 
It flashed for me too, but the button wouldn't go away and I couldn't progress... It was a brand new Raptor drive. And I went ahead and installed Windows XP on it fine... So I don't get what the deal is, I didn't have a problem at all formatting it with XP. I will be trying again in the future, I'm just trying to figure out why it wouldn't work?
 
There's another weird bug that I've run into (mainly on Dell desktops).

If you do not make your Hard Drive the first boot choice, you cannot install Vista on that drive! Crazy, eh? If you give your CD or Floppy drive higher priority, Vista will say that no suitable partition was found (even though it recognizes the hard drive and you can access it via the command prompt). (i.e., use F12 (for example) to access the boot menu to boot from the CD but do not change the boot order in the BIOS)

This (bug?) is very reproducible.

I'm not sure if that's what Taipans was running into? It sounds like you have a different issue though, Destructis.

Another possibility is that the Vista AHCI drivers are buggy ("i.e., formerly the 'Press F6 if you have additional drivers' feature in WinXP). You can get new AHCI / SATA Controller drivers. (Intel, Via have Vista AHCI drivers on their websites). To use updated drivers, just press More Options -> Load Driver when Vista asks which partition to install to. (You'll need to put the drivers on a floppy disk or USB drive)
 
Destructis said:
Quick question though, is the drive you are trying to put it on FAT32 or NTFS?
Click to expand...

I don't know if this was directed to me or not, if it was I was using a brand new drive.

I think I did get the no suitable partition message infact, but somehow got to the format button. I don't remember if I set the boot device to SATA over the DVD drive or not however... I will keep that in mind the next time I try to install it.
 
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