[jayfella]

Hi all,

I bought a new setup the other day, and went about installing Vista x64 since i bought 4GB RAM.

At first it went through the setup process ok until the end where it said it couldnt install it right at the end (before it reboots) because of corruption of some sort.

I tried again, but the installation screen didnt come up; I mean I pressed any key to start installing, it loaded the installer, but only the background picture would come up, and no window to select "install now".

So i decided to try install XP. That worked fine, had it installed for a couple of days now. So i tried to install Vista x64 again:

It installed, but then after a couple of reboots ntfs.sys got corrupted and it wouldnt boot into the OS. So after messing about for 20 minutes, tried re-installing it, but again, it keeps saying it cant right at the end due to corruption.

I havent got it OC'ed at all.

rig in sig.

[dribblesnort]

Remove 1 of your DIMMS.

(You don't mention if you are using Upgrade or Full Install, or if the version you have comes with SP1, so...)

If using Full install, Boot from DVD and install
If using Upgrade, do the same WITHOUT entering the product key or activating, then, once installed, remove the upgrade DVD from the drive and reinsert it, then run the setup program again and this time, you can enter the product key and activate. Once installed, remove the Windows.OLD)

You also don't mention the maker of your DVD drive...I have seen many instances where the drive itself is the problem. Swapping it for another drive (borrow from a friend) seems to work.

Worse comes to worst, try making a copy of the installation media on a friend's computer then reinstall using the copy. That worked for me on one of my machines. It turns out my media was a bit hosed...

[jayfella]

I used this DVD drive to install vista on my old machine before i changed mobo, etc...

I cant actually install Vista, and i only have one DIMM installed cos i had to RMA the other one...

i just cant figure this one out....

[theELVISCERATOR]

I had a bad hd that wouldnt take vista. but xp would install.

[jayfella]

Originally Posted by theELVISCERATOR

I had a bad hd that wouldnt take vista. but xp would install.

I can believe that lol.

Im gonna mess about with the BIOS. its got to be something stupid.

[EmAn]

If you had to rma the other sticks then what makes you think the one you have is not bad as well?

Run Memtest 86 for a while and see if it comes up with any errors. If it does then RMA it.

[dribblesnort]

Originally Posted by jayfella

I used this DVD drive to install vista on my old machine before i changed mobo, etc...

I cant actually install Vista, and i only have one DIMM installed cos i had to RMA the other one...

i just cant figure this one out....

Back up anything important on the drive and then blow out the partition and recreate it in Vista's install program (it will let you...I did it on mine), then re-format it using the Vista installation DVD.

I have also seen several posts on the Vista Forums at tech net where the drive acts wonky until it is formatted with Vista.

I am not trying to direct you away from OCFORUMS, because I like this place far more than the Tech Net forums, but you can reach them at:

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/...=204&SiteID=17

If formatting the drive in Vista doesn't help, try to get a friend's installation DVD and use your key on it. Sometimes the installation Media itself is hosed with no apparent symptoms. My AMD box uses a copy of Vista and the media is hosed. On my AMD box the installation media ALWAYS, and mean 10+ times in a row, crapped out right after the "copying files" portion of the installation process.

I grabbed the installation DVD that I used on my Core 2 Duo system and it installed fine (I was using same version on all systems)

After the installation I burned a copy of the DVD that worked and I put it in the Vista DVD Case along with my, evidently, bad DVD so if I need to reinstall I have a copy handy for that system.

Just make sure that if you are using, say, Vista Ultimate, that you borrow a DVD for Vista Ultimate.

[jayfella]

Well...

To explain exactly, im using Express Gate at the minute cos im sick of installing operating systems.

I bought 2 x 2 GB of corsair XMS2 RAM - and an whole bunch of other stuff (mobo, CPU, etc). When i set it all up, and pressed ON, it wouldnt go anywhere, so pulled the RAM, and it beeped away. Sigh of relief, Mobo works. Put one stick in, no go. Took stick out. Put other stick in, monitor LED turns green, KB lights flash, kablam. it works. So i told ebuyer, they approved it, and since both RAM chips came together as a pair, i have to RMA both of them. (picking them up wedneday)

Thing is, when i had XP installed i was ORTHOS, PRIME95, etc... testing my OC. It was all stable, i left it overnight testing for 12 hours and it was stable, played games, blah blah.. its all ok. So i saved my OC to a BIOS profile and reset to default before i installed Vista.

The minute i try install Vista the computer acts like its allergic or something. I do remember when i managed to get it installed that time, For some reason the computer decided to just stop for like a minute. The mouse worked, the keyboard lights turned on and off, but i couldnt get the start bar to work, nothing on-screen would interact.. then just like that, it would all go back to normal. That happened twice, then after i rebooted (thinking driver update would solve it) thats when ntfs.sys got corrupted.

Like i said, XP (32bit) is fine. No problems at all... Vista x64 just wont have it..

Still... ill keep playing about, somethings got to give.

Thanks for the reply's.. Hopefully someone can solve this before i pull what little hair i have left out

[jayfella]

SOLVED:

Finally sorted it.

I would normally leave it open as a brainteaser, but i didnt give out all the variables..

Im using IDE drives until my new ones come..

For some unknown reason, and i have no idea where i read it, but in order for Vista to operate properly, you have to set your HDD to primary.

If its not set to primary, Vista has all sorts of troubles. I had my CDROM as primary and HDD as secondary. Soon as i swapped it, everything went ok!

Problem solved, thank the lord.