Clean install of Vista

S

Speedbird184

New Member
Hi all,


I had installed Windows 10 TP from Windows 8.1, and after realising what a mistake that was, I tried to revert back first to 8.1 then to 7. The "rollback" wasn't an option, and every installation technique I tried did not work. After much thought I decided to try to install Windows Vista. Unfortunately, each time I tried to install the OS, it reverted to the TP.

In the Command Prompt I formatted the drive that contained TP and Windows, and made a boot USB drive with Windows Vista. I can boot the computer from the USB drive and the Windows Vista installation begins, but upon choosing a drive to install it to, it says "Windows is unable to find a system volume which meets its criteria for installation".

After Googling this phrase, there is an article from Microsoft that outlines to make sure the HDD is a higher boot priority, or to remove the USB drive during boot up and to only insert it after Windows Install starts.
I have reconfigured the BIOS and made sure the HDD has a higher priority than the USB drive, and the same issue occurs. I obviously cannot boot the computer without the stick because there is no information on the HDD to which to boot to.

Any insight / help would be great!
​

 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    p6-2302sem
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 7570
    Sound Card
    IDT High Definition Audio
    Keyboard
    HP KG-1061
    Mouse
    HP MG-0982
Your profile states Vista Ultimate x64 SP3, that must be a typo as there never was a 3rd SP. SP2 is the max.

A lot here depends on what you are using to install Vista with. Do you have Vista DVD media and a product key? It also depends on a) is the partition your are installing on formatted using the NTFS file system and b) already allocated a drive letter and c) how were you telling the system to install - a complete format and install would be the only way to go I think, although I will defer to any others that may wish to post here.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Win 10 Pro x64 x 2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware ALX x58
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme O/C to 4.02 GHz, 8MB Cache
    Motherboard
    Asus® P6T Deluxe V2 X58 LGA1366
    Memory
    24GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 4096MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    1792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Dual Core
    Sound Card
    Onboard Soundmax® High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung XL2370 HD LED backlit 23" W/S 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500gb SATA II
    1 x 1TB SATA II
    1 external eSATA LaCie 3TB
    (Non-RAID)
    PSU
    Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU
    Case
    Unique
    Cooling
    4 case fans @ CPU water cooling.
    Internet Speed
    1gb/s up and down
Sorry, SP2.

Yes, it's a Vista DVD with a product key... I have created a boot disk on a USB drive, since I was unable to get the computer to boot from the DVD. I am pretty sure the formatted drive is NTFS, and I allocated the letter "C" to the drive myself. What possible steps can I take to verify the drive is NTFS? And, if it is NTFS, what can be done in order to get the computer to install Windows?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    p6-2302sem
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 7570
    Sound Card
    IDT High Definition Audio
    Keyboard
    HP KG-1061
    Mouse
    HP MG-0982
Far easier to use the DVD as attempting installation from a USB drive is iffy at best and depends a lot on how your hardware behaves. You mentioned a Command Prompt, not sure where you were going with that. It should be simple. In the BIOS you'd have to set the DVD drive as the first boot device and assuming the DVD you have is legit and bootable, it should be a piece of cake to do, just simply reboot with the DVD in the drive and follow this guide: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/117366-clean-install-full-version-vista.html . It probably would have been best if you had posted this in thread to start with.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Win 10 Pro x64 x 2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware ALX x58
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme O/C to 4.02 GHz, 8MB Cache
    Motherboard
    Asus® P6T Deluxe V2 X58 LGA1366
    Memory
    24GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 4096MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    1792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Dual Core
    Sound Card
    Onboard Soundmax® High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung XL2370 HD LED backlit 23" W/S 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500gb SATA II
    1 x 1TB SATA II
    1 external eSATA LaCie 3TB
    (Non-RAID)
    PSU
    Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU
    Case
    Unique
    Cooling
    4 case fans @ CPU water cooling.
    Internet Speed
    1gb/s up and down

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Win 10 Pro x64 x 2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware ALX x58
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme O/C to 4.02 GHz, 8MB Cache
    Motherboard
    Asus® P6T Deluxe V2 X58 LGA1366
    Memory
    24GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 4096MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    1792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Dual Core
    Sound Card
    Onboard Soundmax® High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung XL2370 HD LED backlit 23" W/S 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500gb SATA II
    1 x 1TB SATA II
    1 external eSATA LaCie 3TB
    (Non-RAID)
    PSU
    Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU
    Case
    Unique
    Cooling
    4 case fans @ CPU water cooling.
    Internet Speed
    1gb/s up and down
Thanks for the tips, however, I have already created a boot disk with an ISO of Vista on a USB drive, and I have changed the boot order so the USB drive is above the HDD. My issue is not with the USB drive; I'm trying to find a way to overcome the error that pops up whenever I select a drive during the install.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    p6-2302sem
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 7570
    Sound Card
    IDT High Definition Audio
    Keyboard
    HP KG-1061
    Mouse
    HP MG-0982

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Win 10 Pro x64 x 2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware ALX x58
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme O/C to 4.02 GHz, 8MB Cache
    Motherboard
    Asus® P6T Deluxe V2 X58 LGA1366
    Memory
    24GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 4096MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    1792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Dual Core
    Sound Card
    Onboard Soundmax® High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung XL2370 HD LED backlit 23" W/S 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500gb SATA II
    1 x 1TB SATA II
    1 external eSATA LaCie 3TB
    (Non-RAID)
    PSU
    Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU
    Case
    Unique
    Cooling
    4 case fans @ CPU water cooling.
    Internet Speed
    1gb/s up and down
Another thought...it's been a while since I reinstalled Vista, but if I recall correctly it asks which volume you want to install to, and you may, at that stage, have to actually delete a volume and recreate it in order for the installtion to finally recognize it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Operating System
    Win 10 Pro x64 x 2
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware ALX x58
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-975 Extreme O/C to 4.02 GHz, 8MB Cache
    Motherboard
    Asus® P6T Deluxe V2 X58 LGA1366
    Memory
    24GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 4096MB
    Graphics Card(s)
    1792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295 Dual Core
    Sound Card
    Onboard Soundmax® High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung XL2370 HD LED backlit 23" W/S 2ms response time
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500gb SATA II
    1 x 1TB SATA II
    1 external eSATA LaCie 3TB
    (Non-RAID)
    PSU
    Alienware® 1200 Watt Multi-GPU
    Case
    Unique
    Cooling
    4 case fans @ CPU water cooling.
    Internet Speed
    1gb/s up and down

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 8.1 Industry Pro x64
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavillion Elite HPE-250f
    CPU
    Intel i7 860 Quad core 2.8 ghz
    Memory
    8 gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 gb ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Alienware 25 AW2521HF
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 &1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    1 TB x2
    Other Info
    https://www.cnet.com/products/hp-pavilion-elite-hpe-250f/
  • Operating System
    Windows 2012 R2 Data center/Linux Mint
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Poweredge T140
    CPU
    i3 9100 3.6GHz, 8M cache, 4C/4T
    Memory
    8GB 2666MT/s DDR4 ECC UDIMM
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    1 TB & 360 GB x2
    Other Info
    https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/productdetailstxn/poweredge-t140?~ck=bt
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