Huge vista installation problems :(

[metalgamer2008]

Problem

after over 30 various failed attempts at installing vista i've decided to ask for outside help, I have windows vista home basic OEM 5 CD version, usually what happens is vista never completes the installation. I'm attempting to dual boot vista with windows xp, the partition that im trying to install vista on is set as primary.

It installs everything up to the last step, then auto restarts, after that it attempts to boot up and never boots up, when i run it in safety mode i receive the message "windows can not finish installation while in safe mode please restart." this is where the fun begins, i've had about 7 different things happen when i restart.

Error 1: The most common so far, the screen goes black and all i can see is the mouse arrow, after about 5 seconds or so the mouse arrow disappears, the keyboard numlock lights turn off, i've heard vista can take awhile to boot up so ive tried waiting when this happens, i waited about 2 and a half hours and still no go.

Error 2: The second most common is almost exactly like the first, except the keyboard numlock lights stay on but the keyboard is completely unresponsive (can not turn off the light manually) i've also given up to two hours for the comp to boot up when it does this, sadly it still doesnt boot.

Error 3: The computer shows the screen "windows is starting for the first time" it fully loads and then the computer restarts and i'm back at square 1.

Error 4: I get a blue screen of death, usually saying something about removing any usb devices, the only usb devices i had plugged in at the time were the keyboard and mouse.

Error 5: I get a half red screen, not a red screen of death, but a disgusting jumbled screen, the top half the screen is red and it has lots of white "snow" mixed in with it.

Error 6: I also get a red screen but this time it only uses up the right half the screen, its not as distorted as the one in error 5.

Error 7: The oddest error of the bunch, the mouse appears and all i see are blue "specks" the screen is about 90% black and 10% of the screen are these blue specks appearing randomly on the screen

Failed attempts @ fixing:

1. First i tried ripping the vista CDs and mounting off a virtual drive, it installs but once again the last step is NEVER finished

2. Because i'm dual booting, i can still access C:\ and i can see the vista files on it, tried messing around with those but to no avail

3. I tried using the Vista repair, it says that i should have no problems at all starting up vista, sadly it is wrong mad.gif

4. I've tried clearing the partition and making a fresh copy, AND ive tried installing xp first on the partition and then upgrading it with vista, both attempts failed.

5. Online Compatibility shows that my computer is 100% compatible with vista

6. Ive checked memory diagnostics, it shows no problems with vista

7. I've tried switching to just the on board graphics as opposed to the video card, this also didnt work

8. i've tried just single booting vista with a single partition, and met with the same results

only thing not mentioned in my sig is that. Hard drive: SATA (looking on everest however it says its IDE, but its connected via a SATA cable) Western digital Caviar 500 gb 7200 RPM

[hamoood]

Hmmm
I think win vista installation problems are very common
In my computer I install it 3 times until it's works!

1. Make sure you have last BIOS UPDATE Installed
2. Backup all your files and Remake the partitions using Windows Vista Disk [ I don't know why but i'm unable to install win vista using a partition created with win xp CD]

[Player-X]

Since when did Windows Vista come on CDs?

[hamoood]

Originally Posted by Player-X

Since when did Windows Vista come on CDs?

I mean DVD

[Xtreme2damax]

Originally Posted by hamoood

I mean DVD

hamoood, I think he meant the op of this thread. As far as I'm aware Windows Vista comes on a single DVD.

Now I don't want to come to any conclusions here, but this does sound a bit fishy. Can anyone confirm if any version of Vista comes on Cd's let alone 5 Cd's or has ever came on Cd's. If this is confirmed by someone, there will be no further questions asked

[hamoood]

Originally Posted by Xtreme2damax

hamoood, I think he meant the op of this thread. As far as I'm aware Windows Vista comes on a single DVD.

Now I don't want to come to any conclusions here, but this does sound a bit fishy. Can anyone confirm if any version of Vista comes on Cd's let alone 5 Cd's or has ever came on Cd's. If this is confirmed by someone, there will be no further questions asked

Ops my bad..

Windows Vista Comes with Single DVD...

But you can spilt it to CDs
If I remeber correctly there are a guide on Microsoft website how to do that

Edit:
I found these tools
Download details: Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK)
OPKs

And some OEM version comes with CDs

[KillerShots]

I'm sure there's a CD version available somewhere for those that are still in the dark ages of computing. After all, he's not going after the Ultimate, so he doesn't need a beefy machine that in all likelihood would have a DVD-ROM on it.

1. Run memtest86 (google for it). It sounds like you're running into bad RAM (that's about the only thing that would explain inconsistent errors)

2. Not that you're running into this yourself, but I find that in order to install vista on my machine, I need to partially install on my internal DVD-ROM, then vista knocks out my IDE interface and I need to finish the install on my USB DVD-ROM (after which my IDE interface is re-enabled). I have an nForce4 IDE chipset. This doesn't halt the install because I do not use the IDE interface for hard drives.