Trouble w/ Clean Install of Vista

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ryderzery

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Jul 10, 2004
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So I bought an upgrade disc of Home Premium, intending to use that trick to do a clean install with it. So I format and partition my hard drive, boot up from the DVD drive, and yet Vista won't go to the installation screen. Instead it stops at the Boot Manager and says"Windows failed to start." etc. and tells me to use my Windows installation disc to repair it. I was under the impression that the Vista upgrade disc allowed clean installs on fresh hard drives... is this no longer the case?

Any help is appreciated, thanks.
 
I believe that you need to atleast have an operating system to upgrade from even using the clean install work around.
 
So if I reinstall XP, then boot from the Vista DVD, it will wipe the hard drive and do a clean install then?
 
Yup i think you need to reinstall Xp. Before you try the clean install again do some reading on how to do it first, sorry i dont know where the article is.
 
You're not booting off the DVD. Check your BIOS settings again, and make sure you press a key on your keyboard when it prompts you (if you don't get a prompt to press a key to boot from the disc, you know your boot priority is wrong). You haven't gotten to the installation yet, so activation isn't the problem.

Chances are the bootloader's still in tact, which is why it's giving you that message instead of something like "No operating system found". How did you format your hard drive?
 
B. W. said:
You're not booting off the DVD. Check your BIOS settings again, and make sure you press a key on your keyboard when it prompts you (if you don't get a prompt to press a key to boot from the disc, you know your boot priority is wrong). You haven't gotten to the installation yet, so activation isn't the problem.

Chances are the bootloader's still in tact, which is why it's giving you that message instead of something like "No operating system found". How did you format your hard drive?
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The DVD drive is first in my boot sequence and I do press a key to boot from the DVD when prompted (if I don't, it justs says "NTLR(or whatever) not found, press Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart"). When it says "Windows is loading files..." prior to reaching the Boot Manager, the DVD drive is definitely being accessed as it lights up and I can hear it spinning away...

As for partitioning, I just used Windows. I put the hard drive into another computer as a slave and used disk management in Windows XP to partition it (only one partition, NTFS, basically default settings).
 
I somewhat remember reading that the Upgrade version has to be started from within Windows, but I could be wrong.
ryderzery said:
As for partitioning, I just used Windows. I put the hard drive into another computer as a slave and used disk management in Windows XP to partition it.
Click to expand...
That's not going to do it. Download something like GParted, and clear the drive fully. It's also a hell of a lot less work than removing the drive from the system.
 
djnes said:
I somewhat remember reading that the Upgrade version has to be started from within Windows, but I could be wrong.

That's not going to do it. Download something like GParted, and clear the drive fully. It's also a hell of a lot less work than removing the drive from the system.
Click to expand...

OK, I'll try GParted LiveCD and see what happens.

Thanks for the help!
 
djnes said:
I somewhat remember reading that the Upgrade version has to be started from within Windows, but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...
The upgrade version of Vista has to be installed within Windows, but that wouldn't affect the installation. ryderzery would still be able to install Vista without entering a product key, and run a few commands (in a nutshell) or reinstall Vista again while in Windows.
 
B. W. said:
The upgrade version of Vista has to be installed within Windows, but that wouldn't affect the installation. ryderzery would still be able to install Vista without entering a product key, and run a few commands (in a nutshell) or reinstall Vista again while in Windows.
Click to expand...
Thank you, that was what i was trying to say from the beginning that you need to have an operating system to begin with.
 
03grandam said:
I believe that you need to atleast have an operating system to upgrade from even using the clean install work around.
Click to expand...

Not true, at least with first generation dvd's. You boot without entering the product key, select your version, install....then once on the desktop, do the command line options and enter the product key. Boom. Activated. No reinstall, just an install to a freshly formatted drive. Once.
 
Well I tried GParted LiveCD and it wouldn't even start. It said something about Linux and aborted... can't I use it for Windows? So then I tried just downloading GParted (not LiveCD) and all I get are a bunch of files I can't open. I feel really dumb right now. What am I supposed to do? How can I get this drive partitioned right?
 
ryderzery said:
Well I tried GParted LiveCD and it wouldn't even start. It said something about Linux and aborted... can't I use it for Windows? So then I tried just downloading GParted (not LiveCD) and all I get are a bunch of files I can't open. I feel really dumb right now. What am I supposed to do? How can I get this drive partitioned right?
Click to expand...


During the initial install, Vista setup is not even SEEING the hard drive? If it does, you can delete any partitions, then reset them. I installed this rig onto a brand new 320gb SATA-II drive, no big deal. Set your OS partition, you can even do the remainder of the disk once you get to the desktop with disk manager.
 
TheRapture said:
During the initial install, Vista setup is not even SEEING the hard drive? If it does, you can delete any partitions, then reset them.
Click to expand...

Vista doesn't even reach the installation screen. It says it's loading Windows files and then says it can't start Windows. That's where I'm stuck. Vista never even comes up.
 
ryderzery said:
Vista doesn't even reach the installation screen. It says it's loading Windows files and then says it can't start Windows. That's where I'm stuck. Vista never even comes up.
Click to expand...


Sounds like the hard drive is not even being "seen" by the Vista setup. Which would also explain why the GPart cd won't work either. Is this a new drive? Is it plugged in or maybe the sata cable is loosely plugged in? Can you hear it spinning up when you first hit the power button on the rig?

Can you even "see" the drive in your BIOS options??
 
TheRapture said:
Sounds like the hard drive is not even being "seen" by the Vista setup. Which would also explain why the GPart cd won't work either. Is this a new drive? Is it plugged in or maybe the sata cable is loosely plugged in? Can you hear it spinning up when you first hit the power button on the rig?

Can you even "see" the drive in your BIOS options??
Click to expand...

Yes, the drive is fine. The BIOS detects it, and my Windows XP installation disc works fine too. It's just the Vista disc... and GPart, which says "crc error" and aborts.
 
If GParted is giving you a CRC error, it probably means the disc is bad, as in it was a bad burn.
 
djnes said:
If GParted is giving you a CRC error, it probably means the disc is bad, as in it was a bad burn.
Click to expand...

I tried it with different burning software and a different brand disc and the same problem. "Uncompressing Linux... CRC error" Are there some specific settings I should use when burning from the ISO?
 
Well I tried GParted on my other computer and it worked so nothing is wrong with the disc... man I'm so frustrated. :mad:
 
B. W. said:
I would actually recommend against that. If everything was working fine before, what good what flashing do?
Click to expand...

QFT.

If an updated BIOS does not specifically fix something that is wrong, or the BIOS readme (if the manufacturer was gracious enough to tell you what the updated BIOS does or fixes) doesn't specifically say what it does or fixes, there's no logical reason to apply the update and take that chance of a possible bad flash happening.
 
I just don't get it... My XP disc reaches the setup screen fine (even my upgrade version). Shouldn't the Vista disc do the same? Could there be some problem with it being a DVD instead of a CD?
 
ryderzery said:
I just don't get it... My XP disc reaches the setup screen fine (even my upgrade version). Shouldn't the Vista disc do the same? Could there be some problem with it being a DVD instead of a CD?
Click to expand...
If that's the case, I would install XP, then do a "custom install" to Vista.

It could be bad media, but that doesn't explain why GParted doesn't work.
 
EDIT: Nevermind, I think I figured it out. My RAM sucks.

Well, it looks like the problem is worse than I thought: NO Windows CDs work on my computer, not even XP. It's a new computer, by the way. I just built it, and I'm reusing the hard drive from my old computer. When I tried installing XP, it got to the copying files part and practically every other file it said was corrupt. So I kept skipping the files, until finally at 55% it just froze.

But here's what I've learned after hours of experimenting: There is nothing wrong with the Vista disc (or XP), my hard drive, or my DVD drive. Vista reaches the setup screen just fine when I transplant my hard drive and DVD drive into my old computer. (But unfortunately I can't install Vista using that computer because it does not meet the minimum requirements)

So where does this bring me? Obviously there is a hardware issue in my new computer that prevents any CDs from booting properly (Windows, GParted, etc.). Anyone have any ideas? I went through three different BIOS versions with no luck, I changed almost every BIOS option I could back and forth, I disconnected all unnecessary devices, I swapped IDE channels and cables... I'm completely out of ideas. And tired. :(

Please, someone... anyone... give me some ideas.

Oh, and my specs are:
Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Biostar NF4U AM2G
eVGA Geforce 7900GS
2x1GB Super Talent DDR2 667 Dual Channel
Western Digital Caviar 80GB IDE HDD
Lite-On 16x DVD-ROM
Apevia ATX-CW500WP4 PSU
 
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