Vista Problems.... :(

Ok I need some help. My GF recently deleted some system files on my XP machine. And i figure since the comp meets requirements for vista I would get that and see how it ran. I have vista on my other computers so I know how everything should go. So i go out and purchase Home Premium. Luckily I have a spare hard drive completely blank. So I pull the drive with xp and all my info and put in the blank one. They are identical drives 160gb WDs IDE. I proceed to install without key because I have the upgrade disk. I know that you have to install a clean version to upgrade and register Key code upon second installation within windows. Except theres a problem. I format the hard drive to be safe for clean install. And theres a warning when i select the partition. It says... This computers hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disks controller is enabled in the computers BIOS menu. First off idk what to enable. Its been a long time since ive worked on computer problems lol.

So I click next to continue install hoping it would be able to install. Then it says... Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation.

Does anyone know what i did wrong or what my problem is?

-Adam

 

It sounds like the new disk drive needs to be formatted...again...was it formatted in NTFS format? Where you able to make partitions on the other hard drive yet? This may not really matter...but did you set the jumper to "master?" I guess if it wants you to enable the controllers in the bios, then you wanna go in and make sure that the eide, or ide controllers are actually enabled. Make sure all the cables are legit and connected properly as well.

 

OK. i formatted again. nothing. and yea its NTFS. I havent tried to make a partition on the other drive. Would I be able to install it on the partition and then move my data over to the blank hard drive? then upgrade the main drive?

 

Oh and the drives are set each on cable select so there shuoldn be a prob there

 

It would be if you don't have the appropriate cable select cable. To safeguard your data, I'd be inclined to do the installation on the new drive without the old one in there at all. Once the new one's up and running, slap the old one in and slurp your data over to the new drive.

Stuart.

 

is the hard drive on the right spot on the cable? if the pc only has one drive i believe you need to use the connector on the end of the cable (if memory serves me right, haven't had to touch any of my towers in two years). set the jumper to master and set the other to cs/slave. check those and see what happens. also check the bios settings.

 

Yep, This would be the way to do it.

 

yea... tried that. was one of the first things is did. if theres only one drive will cs still work or should i move jumper to master?

-Adam

 

cs should work, but still worth it to try the jumper

 

ok i will try that. if that doesn work im just gunna throw the drives in a dif comp back up impotant stuff and format both with Partition magic.

Thanks guys

-Adam

 

Fixed...

I've had little luck over the years with CS, except for in branded machines such as Dell or HP that I knew came with the right cable. If I remember rightly, the proper CS cable has one of the wires clipped between the two connectors. This also means that you have to orient the cable properly, or the clipped wire would be on the mobo side of both connectors, making it about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

A standard IDE cable with drive jumpers manually set to master and slave is still your best bet.

Stuart.

 

Ok well the help was great guys Everything is up and running great. Now i just need to move all the data back over.

Thanks again!

-Adam

 

Listen to the man

 

Ooh, one other thought. You are using an 80wire IDE cable, right ? Using an older 40wire one with the new breed of drives is just asking for trouble.

Stuart.

 

yea its an 80wire. everything is working fine now. The only problem im having now is signing drivers for my video card. It keep giving me a DirectX device not seen or 3D device. I intsalled the ATI 7.11 display drivers only because i read it would be my best bet. And ATI drivers are a joke as always and dont come with direct x. so i download direct x 9.0c from microsoft. and it still says that im missing something. I think im just gunna give up on this comp and put xp back on it and sell it. lol

 

I didn't even realise it was possible to install DX9 on Vista. Part of the appeal to a lot of people with Vista is DX10. It seems that installing DX9 is an attempt to fix the wrong problem.

That said, my desktops/laptops are all XP/Linux, since I just can't justify paying the asking price for Vista.

Stuart.

 

His card can't run DX10. I believe that ATI has yet to come out with a Vid Card that can.

 

Wrong... ATI came out with DX10 card shortly after Nvidia. I have 3 of them. The 2600 is DX10 and the two 2900s i have are DX10. And yes if they made a 32bit version of Vista it should have no problem with DX9 cards. It says it works fine with DX9. I know a kid running a card version behind me that runs a benchmark with vista that blows most out of the water. 3dmark 06 he got a little over 12000 with a x850pro. of course overclocked to the bone.