Pulling my hair out over a Vista install

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xBanzai89

Supreme [H]ardness
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Aug 24, 2007
Messages
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I am trying to install vista business 64-bit (yes it is legit) from a downloaded iso burned onto a dvd to my new computer. The pass 3 install attempts did not work, and always stopped at expanding files. I know vista does not like more then 2 gb sometimes for a install so I took out one of the ddr sticks. I thought it was fixed when expanding files got to 22%, but now it freezes again. Any idea what is causing this?

Specs of the system:
AMD P2 X2 550 BE
Gigabyte 770-UD3P AM3
2X2GB OCZ DDR3 @ 1333Mhz
Sapphire 4850
rosewill 530 watt psu
WD Black 640GB HD
 
Did you overclock your ram? Try running it @ stock settings for the install.
 
I had the same thing happen with Windows Server 2008. I made about 5 coasters before I gave up and did it by USB. I thought the download was corrupted, but using the USB worked perfectly.

Use criccio's guide
 
If people experience problems like this on their rig it can possibly be alleviated by changing from '+R' to '-R' blank media, or vice versa.
 
Same thing happened to me with windows 7. I cleaned my laptop optical drive lens and it fixed it. So I would say its probably a bad burn.
 
Try running in IDE mode (if your in AHCI)
Try installing from a USB
Make sure you are at stock speeds/cores
 
I had this happening to me in XP one time. It turns out the issue was related to bad RAM.
 
Try doing the install with only 1 stick of ram.

Remove all unnecessary peripherals like tv tuners etc.
 
Still no go on the install. I tried everything mentioned, but the usb drive since I don't have one that big. Now the bios has the ACC set to AUTO. Doesn't that unlock the 550 to a quad core? Could that be causing issues when I am trying to install windows, since it may not be stable?
 
Have you ever had anything else running on the system? Download the ISO of memtest and burn it to a CD, try running that on the machine for awhile:
http://www.memtest86.com/

Also, when burning do not burn at your burners max speed. Step it down a bit to help get an error free burn.
 
Its a fresh system. Though there maybe a lot of install crap on the drive now -.-.

I'll try the turning down the burning speed if this one doesn't work.
 
Have you tried downloading it again? If the problem stems from the ISO you initially downloaded.........
 
The ISO is not the issue. I tried one of my retail vista ultimate discs and the damn thing still freezes with expanding files. The windows mem test hasn't picked up any errors with the memory yet as well.
 
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So what have you isolated. Tried different hard drives and different SATA ports, DVD drives and different SATA ports, swapped the 2GB sets? Much beyond that we're talking motherboard and CPU issues.
 
i have seen a system do this with vista and win 7 installs, multiple discs burned, drive laser cleaned....etc...etc....and then can turn around and install XP or Ubuntu just fine off of the same exact disc, next in the stack, burned exactly the same...nothing changed other than OS on the disc...

my experience has been that after many tries it will eventually work, theres something about the decompression during the win vista/7 install routine that conflicts somehow with certain hardware, but the common factor has always been vista or 7 for me

once installed the system would be fine, no memory errors, nothing....until you go to do a clean install again...
 
If there are other SATA ports try them. Two friends have had issues using native SATA ports did the same thing you are seeing.
 
Ok thanks for the suggestions. I'm gonna try my DVD drive for the hell of it too.
 
I installed Vista on the hard drive for the new computer on my rig in my sig. Works on the new computer now. Still have no idea what caused the issue.
 
When you say "stopped" how long did you wait? On one of my machines Vista seems to get stuck at random intervals when decomressing the files, I just shut the monitor off, and come back a couple hours later, and it's usually ready for the next step. I was going to suggest the RAM thing, but it will install, it will just get stuck in a reboot loop with more than 2GB (remove RAM to >2GB, update Vista, reinstall RAM all good), at least that's what mine did.

I'd suggest giving the disc one more burn, at a maximum of x2 speed, with disc verification on, use ImageBurn if you aren't, I have yet to get a bad disc with it.
 
Does your Vista DVD have SP1 or SP2 already integrated? If not, I know there was an issue with some PCs that had over 1GB of RAM and the original Vista install DVD.

If you don't have an integrated DVD, try and find one with SP2 already on it.
 
22% seems like a number I remember when I last installed Vista, 1%-2 took ages then when it got to 22% it seemed like it froze but I let it sit and eventually it went...I will admit back then I was using an IDE DVD ROM and hard drive so I guess that was the cause for the 45 minute long install.

On a side note, Win7 installs in 14 minutes now
 
I didn't see a followup on the memtest comment. First thing you should do is burn a memtest boot disc and let the memtest run for an hour or so and see if eveything is ok.
 
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