Vista64 all day and finally installed!!

michaelintampa

New Member
over and over tried different things different drivers for nforce raid.. nothing worked, then finally after hours of frustration I did one simple things that fixed all and now windows vista 64 is installing. And what did I u wonder.. I have 2 serial ata drivers raided and one regular Ide drive.. ide drive was just a backdrive.. but it was setup as a primary drive. I disconnected the IDE drive and weeeeeeeeeee it started to install I hope this helps any one.. did not need any special drivers yet!!!! still installing will update soon

ok 64 vista installed working fine so far, just had to remove ide drive had not hooked back up yet but should not be aproblem now!
 
Last edited:

My Computer

I messed around for a full day trying to load 64 Vista! Finally, I removed 2 of the 4 GB of Memory and it loaded. When I reloaded the full 4 GB after the install, it blue screened! Now what!!!!!!!
 

My Computer

gbakmars,
Now take the two that gave you the error and install them alone. If it starts all your memory is good.
You may have to crank your memory voltage higher to get all 4 running. Try 2.1 volts and see how that goes.
Of course since I don't know what you are running for equipment this is a guess.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    qx6700
    Motherboard
    intel badaxe2
    Memory
    6 Gig Corsair ddr2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 9600GT 512
    Sound Card
    OB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ24 Princeton19
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200 1280X1024
    Hard Drives
    8 X 500 Gig 3X 1TB RAID 0 and 2X 500 GB
    PSU
    Rosewill 950
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    Chilltec
    Keyboard
    MS Natural Ergonomic 6000
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert
    Internet Speed
    DSL
Thanks! I am running Gigabyte N680SLI-DQ6- QX6700, with 4 GB Corsair Dom. 8500 C5, Dual 8800GTX EVGA SLI, 2x150GB Raptors Raid 0 (Vista 32) and 2x750 Seagate Barracudas (Raid 1) off of Areca 1210 Raid Controller. Off of nVidia Controller-2x36GB Raid 0 (Vista 64).

The memory is all fine. Just cannot get all 4 GB to work in Vista 64.

Also, I cannot boot into Vista 32 unless I physically disconnect 64 hard drives.
 

My Computer

Also should have included that the 4 GB have been installed and running in the 32 Vista. I did have to do what you indicated, and up the voltage to 2.1+ to get them to work in Vista 32.

So basically two issues:

#1 How to get 4 GB to be recognized in Vista 64

#2 How to change the boot order to Vista 32
 

My Computer

When you start does it ask you which system to start? Did you try searching for dual boot Vista, I've heard of others dual booting but usually XP is the other one. Does your BIOS mention other devices to start from in the boot order section?
Have you searched the Corsair site for tips on your mem/mobo combo, they might even recommend a higher voltage, or different timings.
I hope you have a massive power supply, at least 700 watts, probably even more. But if you have those 2 video cards powered up I know one thing, it has plenty of lines coming out of it.
I have an Areca 1220 that I gave up on, I just run everything from my mobo, fortunately it has 8 SATA ports. I really wanted to run everything RAID6 but it was not to be.
I know my setup runs real hot, yours must be even hotter. The Areca alone was almost hotter than my video card.
How much memory did x32 show with the 4 Gigs installed, mine showed 3.5 I believe.
My Q6700 ran almost too hot for a few weeks but eventually settled down and became normal. I use a Zahlman 9700 aircooler and they said it would cool down after a while, which I didn't really believe, but should have.
Good luck your gonna have an awesome system when you get it going, I had to play with mine for about a month before it finally began to act right. I reinstalled x64 about 3 times gave up and installed x32 for a while, now I've been with x64 for a few months and I'm staying with it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    qx6700
    Motherboard
    intel badaxe2
    Memory
    6 Gig Corsair ddr2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 9600GT 512
    Sound Card
    OB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ24 Princeton19
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200 1280X1024
    Hard Drives
    8 X 500 Gig 3X 1TB RAID 0 and 2X 500 GB
    PSU
    Rosewill 950
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    Chilltec
    Keyboard
    MS Natural Ergonomic 6000
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert
    Internet Speed
    DSL
Mine runs at about 45 C under normal conditions. I ran a Prime 95 test yesterday for an hour and it leveled off at about 68 c. I haven't done any overclocking yet. I don't have a boot option right now. I go into Vista 32 if and only if I disconnect the 64 drives.

You should reconsider the Areca. I had trouble initially. I finally figured out that I had to uninstall all drives that were not connected to the Areca controller. It works great. No Raid 6 though. I think there are many that bought for Raid 6 and it didn't come through.

I am running an Ultra X3 1,000 Watt PSU.
 

My Computer

#1 How to get 4 GB to be recognized in Vista 64

I stumbled upon these forums after doing a search for a printer driver. I just
registered on these forums to answer your question.

I installed Vista x64 this weekend and now have my system up and running with 4GB ram. It took me quite a few install attempts (since I tried installing with overclocking and RAID) before I figured out what was wrong. The following knowledgebase article will be of help to you:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

Bottom line: install Vista x64 with 2GB of ram, install the patch provided in the KB article, and then install the additional 2GB of ram.
 

My Computer

I have come across that update a couple of times and wasn't sure if it would "fix" my problem. I will go for it! Thanks! Are you dual booting? I have the two Raid 0's and thought that since they are totally seperate drives, I couldn't possibly have any boot issues. It does seem though, that my Vista 64 is being identified by the BIOS as the "primary" boot drive, and I am not sure how to switch that. If you want to email, send to my screen name at aol. I have spent the last 14 months interceding for XPS 700 customers to get an upgrade in their motherboard. I finally decided that I should be building my own!!
 

My Computer

I don't think that you want to fiddle around in the BIOS with regards to primary boot drive settings. Otherwise you will have to change that every time you want to boot to the other OS.

Below I quoted a Microsoft webpage that can be found here:
When you start your computer, the first code that executes is the BIOS. The BIOS reads the master boot record (MBR) from the boot device and transfers control to the boot code stored in the MBR. (The Windows setup program writes the MBR to the first sector on the hard disk during installation.) The boot manager reads the boot entries from the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store so they are available to the loader and displays a boot menu to the user. The boot environment provides a native application programming interface for primitive graphics and other system support. Boot applications are pieces of code that are located on a boot device and run in the boot environment.
It sounds like you need to select one drive as your primary drive which stores the MBR. Then you need to verify that your BCD contains both OSes on different drives. You will probably find that one is missing and you will need to add another one. I would caution you to be careful as you may not be able to load Vista if you change the wrong settings. I should also add that I have never done this before but I am fairly confident that these are the steps you need to take.

The command to edit the BCD is BCDedit.exe. You should have enough information now to perform a web search and figure out how to use this tool.
 

My Computer

I gave it a try and it is now booting with 4 GB of memory! The patch did the memory trick. Thanks! Now all I have to do is figure out how to set up a dual boot. When I am in Windows 32, and drop down the window for first boot choice, it only gives me one choice, "Vista". This might be that Vista 64 isn't being seen when I am in 32, as the only way to get into 32 is by disconnecting the 64 hard drives. If they Raid 0 64 hard drives are connected, then that is where the Bios is chosing to head. I cannot find anything in the BIOS that gives me another option. My hard drive boot order is my Areca Card #1 and the nVidia Control 64 Raid as #2. Doesn't matter- still goes to the 64. Any thoughts?
 

My Computer

You need to figure out what drive you want to use as your boot drive. That determines where the master boot record is stored. Both your drives (Vista32 and Vista64) contain boot records that correspond to the single OS on the respective drive. You need to modify the boot loader configuration (BCDedit.exe or some other tool) and add information so that the boot loader offers you the option of booting the OS on the other drive.
 

My Computer

Ok, that makes sense. I suppose that since both are Vista, that complicates things some. So how do I make Vista 32 the primary boot? And when I want to boot off of 64 how do I do that? It doesn't appear that Vista first boot device is going to give me a choice. Do I go with some software? thanks
 

My Computer

When I think about it, I can't imagine the OS allowing another OS to just sit there on another disc and hang out with it. The only possible way this might happen is if it can segregate the two by way of that opening window that asks which one you want to use. This seems not to be happening under your arrangement so I doubt your configuration of choice is going to work out for you. I think the only way this might happen is how you do it now, by hand. I would also guess that using that method would eventually corrupt the 750Gig RAID under one or the other OS, I doubt the indexing files on that disc that the OS uses will continue to be happy as you continue to add and remove files under one system or the other. Sorry for being so non-technical, but that is the way I understand it. Maybe someone more technically gifted will come in and explain why I am wrong about that, but I would be very careful about storing my photos there til I got a more definitive answer. Or just use one OS.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    qx6700
    Motherboard
    intel badaxe2
    Memory
    6 Gig Corsair ddr2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 9600GT 512
    Sound Card
    OB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ24 Princeton19
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200 1280X1024
    Hard Drives
    8 X 500 Gig 3X 1TB RAID 0 and 2X 500 GB
    PSU
    Rosewill 950
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    Chilltec
    Keyboard
    MS Natural Ergonomic 6000
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert
    Internet Speed
    DSL
Pick one drive as your main drive. It could contain either Vista32 or Vista64 -- it doesn't matter. Set that as your primary boot device in the BIOS. Then boot up the computer and the OS on that drive should load. Then you need to run BCDedit.exe to edit the boot loader configuration on that drive. You will need to add the other OS to this boot loader. Then you will never have to touch the BIOS again to boot up into a different OS.

That's the extent of help I can give you. I've never done this myself but I'm fairly confident that this is what you need to do. Be careful playing with BCDedit.exe as you could end up with an unbootable system. There may be other tools out there that permit easier configuration of the boot loader.
 

My Computer

I have been in the Bios time and time again. Boot order is Areca Card with Vista 32 on Raid 0. Second boot is nVidia Controlled Vista 64 on Raid 0.

When I go into F12 there is only one hard drive choice, with others being CD, Floppy, etc

I suppose I could go into the BIOS and disable the nVidia Raid Array, whenever I want to boot off of the Areca and use Vista 32. At least that way, I might not be physically opening the case and removing cables.

Interestingly, when I am booted into Vista 64, there is only one Drive shown. My Areca drives, Raid 0 and Raid 1 Barracudas aren't there. I wasn't planning on doing any work with the 64 other than playing games, benchmarking, etc. Just a "for fun" drive. If in time I find that the 64 is significantly faster and drivers/software are readily available, then I might make the switch.

So, if I never store anything on the Raid 1 Barracudas, from the Vista 64 drives, I shouldn't have a problem. Right???

Thanks guys for all of the help.
 

My Computer

I think if you disable that RAID it may just make them 2 separate drives rather than simply turning those ports off.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    qx6700
    Motherboard
    intel badaxe2
    Memory
    6 Gig Corsair ddr2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 9600GT 512
    Sound Card
    OB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ24 Princeton19
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200 1280X1024
    Hard Drives
    8 X 500 Gig 3X 1TB RAID 0 and 2X 500 GB
    PSU
    Rosewill 950
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    Chilltec
    Keyboard
    MS Natural Ergonomic 6000
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert
    Internet Speed
    DSL
I would hate to delete a good running Ultimate 64 install.
Are you using x86 because of a hardware incompatibility? x64 runs all my stuff and the only hang up I've had was with my TiVo network, but I have different software to run that and it works, so I have no problems at all now.
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    qx6700
    Motherboard
    intel badaxe2
    Memory
    6 Gig Corsair ddr2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 9600GT 512
    Sound Card
    OB
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ24 Princeton19
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200 1280X1024
    Hard Drives
    8 X 500 Gig 3X 1TB RAID 0 and 2X 500 GB
    PSU
    Rosewill 950
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    Chilltec
    Keyboard
    MS Natural Ergonomic 6000
    Mouse
    Kensington Expert
    Internet Speed
    DSL
If I knew that I would have no obstacles then I would switch to all 64 vista ultimate. CS3? HP printer? Creative Elite Pro X-Fi? Nikon Coolscan5000? Nero? Office 2007? Right now, it is safe to switch as I have nothing stored yet on this build. Question. Will a file/photo created in Vista 32 be fine in 64?
 

My Computer

Back
Top