This is my first post, and it looks like I'm not the only one with problems
looking at these forums!

I partitioned my C:\ drive so I could have a dual boot system. I started the
install from within XP MCE (as recommended) and set it to install on the new
partition, and all looked OK, it rebooted and continued the installation, did
another reboot or 2 while installing (it said it would), then after 45
minutes of installation it froze and didn't continue, so I rebooted and it
continued, then I went out for the night

got back at midnight and XP was loaded with a message saying Vista couldn't
be installed (even though I passed all the checks!) and the new HDD partition
was empty, so I retried and set it going and left it and went to bed

got up this morning and it had got further, asked for my location, a
username a PC name and what wallpaper I want, then it installed for another
minute or 2, then rebooted, it looked like it was going ok, then the screen
went black, the mouse pointer appeared and just when I thought the desktop
was going to load, it froze, I restarted, did the same again, restarted
again, did the same again.

I didn't have time to keep trying as I had to come to work, so couldn't try
safe mode. People have been suggesting to try to load safe mode and roll back
my graphics card drivers, others have said try a different graphics card,
install the proper drivers, put the original gfx card in and reboot, but
these suggestions are coming because they've read about these problems on the
net but only when it boots to a black screen (or the monitor goes into
standby), but my screen isn't just black, there's also a mouse pointer that's
frozen (the HDD light also stops flashing as soons as it freezes)

does anyone have any ideas I can try when I get home tonight?

Pentium D 3.4Ghz, Intel 945 chipset, GeForce 7950GT 256Mb graphics card, 2Gb
DDR2 RAM, around 1.5Tb of HDD space, Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray writer, XBox
HD-DVD drive

any help would be greatly appreciated