Vista Install problem

[Jthe7th]

I hope this is the correct area for this question.

I am attempting to do a clean install with Vista Home Premium. I set the DVD as the first boot device and pop in the disc. I follow the instruction to select any key to boot from DVD. Next screen to pop up is the black screen with:


"Windows is loading files..." and a progress bar. Once the progress bar is done, the next black screen has a green progress bar at the bottom with "microsoft corporation" below that. The green progress bar moves, but that is where it stays. There is no activity at all with my system, the HDD light does not come on; basically it just stalls at this point.

Prior to installing, I disconnected everything except for: DVD drive, floppy drive, and video card. There are no BIOS updates for my MB.

Can someone please help me to resolve this?

System specs (Pleaes let me know if more information is needed):

AMD 64 X2 4600+
MB: MSI K9N SLI Platinum
2GB RAM
LITE-ON DVDRW
Seagate SATA 250GB HDD ST3250620AS
EVGA 8800 GTS

[Silvers24]

It could be it's taking its sweet time, when I installed my copy of Vista, I thought it had stopped working on me too, however I had remembered how long it takes for this **** to acutally do anything so I waited it out. Went through it just fine.
Perhaps redo it & wait a while longer, if that dont help, well. Someone else will have to help.
But my experiance is, Vista is slow as **** to install. Even on a high end PC build.

[usnavyretired]

Did you make sure that your system, applications, and devices are compatible with a 64-bit edition of Windows Vista?

[Icyman23]

I have an identical system to yours only i have an AMD 5600+ and Nvidia/Foxconn reference mobo. (Leadtek overclocked 8800 GTS)

I installed Vista Home Premium 32bit in about 20 mins.

Your system is completely 64bit compatible, so im stumped.

[Icyman23]

.

Prior to installing, I disconnected everything except for: DVD drive, floppy drive, and video card.


Do you mean that you disconected the seagate hard drive?

btw: windows will load drivers for everything that it can if things are connected...try to have everything connected...

[Jthe7th]

Thanks for the responses. The Vista version is 32-bit, OEM. Correcting my earlier post, I did leave the seagate hard drive connected during install attempts.

I was thinking initially that it might have been the SATA driver problem I've read about, but I've never gotten to the point of having to load any SATA drivers.

I'll give it another shot and just give it a lot more time.

[Jthe7th]

Okay, I tried again and let it sit for a couple of hours and nothing. It stayed on the black screen with the green progress bar.

So, I tried another route. I tried running the installation from XP to the blank SATA drive. I ran upgrade advisor to make sure everything is compatiblek all checked out. Going through the process, I selected the drive where Vista is to go, and to be sure, I loaded SATA drivers.

Everything was working fine, until the first reboot. Once again, back to the black screen with the green progress bar. And once again, it stops right there, just like before; no HDD activity, no nothing.

I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong, or if the Vista Home Premium OEM disc might be bad.

Any ideas?

[usnavyretired]

You might possibly find an answer at this site and sorry I can't be of more help.
http://www.winvistaclub.com/index.html

[Jthe7th]

I really can't figure out what's going on. It really seems like the Vista DVD will not boot the system no matter what way I try to install (clean, upgrade or dual-boot). Everything seems to load okay, but when it comes to the part where it has to boot from the DVD, it just stalls. I even tried booting from the DVD without the HDDs connected, and I can't even get to the Vista welcome screen. I swapped out DVD-ROMs and still no luck.

What could be causing this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

js

[Panama Red]

Is your hdd showing up in the bios? If you have any usb devices like card readers attached to the mobo, unplug them until the installation is complete.

[Jthe7th]

The HDD does show up in BIOS and I have tried with everything disconnected. When it gets to the point of booting from the DVD, I can hear it spinning, and then it stops. It stays on the black screen with the green progress bar. No HDD activity, nothing.

When I put in the XP installation disc, the drive will allow that to boot, but not the Vista DVD. I'm sure the two installation discs are quite different, but what could be causing the Vista disc to just die during installation? Even when I put the Vista disc in without the HDD connected, it won't even go to the intro screen to even try the repair options.

[Panama Red]

Another really dumb question. Is your optical drive a DVD drive? As you said the Vista disk is a DVD. (The XP disk is a CD) A CD drive won't read the Vista disk - but then again, you shouldn't even get the "press any key..." prompt.

[Jthe7th]

Never any dumb questions. The drive is a DVD-ROM. The main one in my system is a Lite-On DVD R/RW. Thinking there may have been a problem with that, I swapped in an older Samsung DVD-ROM. Whenever I try either drive, I only connect one. I was just mentioning the XP CD as either drive will work for the XP installation.

[Panama Red]

Sorry then, I'm fresh out of ideas. My Vista loads have been painless and fast. Wish I could be of more assistance.

[Jthe7th]

Thanks, I appreciate the try.

[Silvers24]

I have some ideas as to why it may not work.

1. Perhaps the DVD Drives you used are in need of a laser lens cleaning. (OR a general cleaning period.)
2. Perhaps they are to old (?) and just can't boot from the DVD (I have had this done to me many times with a normal CD-Rom XP Boot, had to try many diffrent roms before the XP would boot right, but upon buying new drives, they boot just fine.)
3. Bad Vista Disk.

[Jthe7th]

I'm thinking it may be a bad Vista disk. The DVD drives I'm using are fairly new, and I even upgraded the firmware. The drives will allow XP to boot. I know there's a big difference between the two, but seems like if the system will boot using the XP disk, the Vista disk should work as well.

Just have to figure out some way to try the disk on another system.