Vista - Upgrade from XP pro to Vista home premium

Hi, I know it is a bit late to catch on but I always seem to have got one operating system working the way I like when another one comes along!
I am running Wondow XP professional on an Athlon AMD64 with an Abit UL8 motherboard and Sata HDD.
I am trying to do a new install because Vista won't allow upgrade from XP professional.
I have reached the stage in installation when I get the blue screen with a 'MACHINE CHECK EXCEPTION' warning.
Having restarted from this error message and rebooting from Hard drive I get the option of booting from 'windows setup' or 'previous operationg system'. If I select 'windows setup' I get the following error:
\$WINDOWS.~BT\windows\system32\winload.exe
Status: 0xc000000f
The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in anticipation
Abidan

Hello Abidan, Welcome to the Forum.

The Abit Vista support for this MB seems to be very patchy at best are you sure that you will be able to find all the Vista drivers that you will need after the install?

This is normally an indication of hardware problems. As XP ran on this MB, it could be an indication that you will not be able to install Vista.

How far into the install are you getting?

If you are overclocking turn everything back to normal.

How much Ram do you have installed?

Check to see that you have the latest BIOS

This error indicates to me that Vista did not install enough for you to be able to restart the (now old) install, The answer here is to reboot from the DVD drive ie. a complete new install

I would suggest trying again just in case the blue screen was a one off let us know how you get on. If it blue screens again there might be someone here who can still help you

I hope this helps

Pooch

Thanks for your suggestions, I will report back!

Abidan

Full system spec:
ACPI uniprocessor PC file version: 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm (040863-2158)
AMD Athlon 64 processor
3200+
2.04Ghz
2GB RAM
Motherboard Abit UL8
Hard drive: Maxtor 6V080E0 3.5 series 80GB (This is not connected to the Mobo by the conventional IDE 80 pin connection but a far smaller plug (serial ATA)?

I downloaded and ran the vista upgrade advisor over the weekend and got confirmation that my current configuration could be upgraded with the addition of various driver updates. I used Driver detective to update these drivers using the 'Vitsa ready' option within Driver detective. I backed up these drivers to a CD and also onto my backup drive in their zipped format. Driver detective also confirmed that my configuration after the driver downloads was suitable for upgrade to Vista.
So I then tried a new install, it progressed to the screen where it gives the option for new install or upgrade, I selected upgrade. It then progressed to the screen where the upgrade option was greyed out due to the fact that it is not possible with Windows XP professional, so I selected the only option for a new install. It progressed to the screen where it prompts for drivers for the HDD. I removed the vista disc and replaced it with my backup disc containing the drivers and selected the SATA 2_Vista_XP64_MCE_XP_2K (V1059C2d).zip but the message was that no drivers could be found. I tried the same with the backed up driver files but got the same message. Thats where I stopped!

I hope this help any of you to sugegst possible solutions!

Thanks
Abidan

You need to unpack the drivers (winzip) b4 burning them to disc. When unpacked simply burn the folder, then on install navigate to the drivers

Pooch