[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

Ok just finished my build (well enough to run vista anyway.. more stuff will come)

And I'm stuck on the Where Do You Want To Install Vista? screen..

I've got a 250GB (where I want vista) which is Disk 1 - Unallocated space

and a 1TB which is Disk 0 also unallocated space.

But it keeps saying "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation"



Even after partitioning into a 10GB and then the rest or a 222GB and 10GB.. and then formating the larger one, it still says this error.

I really need to sort this tonight if you can help

[mctw]

heyy dude, you might have already seen this, or you might not have.

its the first GOOD microsoft help and support page ive seen, hopefully it helps!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927520

from my skim read, it seems its either your hdd controller isnt supported, or the drivers arnt there, or your bios needs to be updated, but i havent read it in huge detail if im honest.

MCTW

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

No worries mate seems to be sorted!

I only had to change the controller from IDE to AHCPI.. idiot!



Expanding Files now.. lol, seems to have been 0% for a while though..
Oh well at least I'm getting somewhere

If it fails again I'll go back to your link, cheers for the response, I'm really tired but I want to get this done before I go to bed..

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

AArgh.. now it reckons theres missing files.. restart installation..

Before you jump to conclusions guys this IS a legit copy.

I don't believe in ripping MS off, even if it may be over priced they still do a damn good job and if everyone downloaded fakes they'd disappear..

Excuse the rant..

Anything I can do other that restart installation and try again?

[philthomas]

I think this error comes up if the partition you try to use is not set to active.
If it's not, set the the target partition to 'Active' and see if you lose the problem.

Acronis Disk Director or something similar will do this for you ..... not sure if the option is available at installation or not.

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

Ok now its not letting me install again..
It says unable to find an area on system volume that meets criteria for installation.. But this time its an extra window popped up

Then it goes on to say that its found space on my 1TB to install there click ok to proceed with that.. but I don't want to so I click cancel..

same again.. nightmare.

And thanks phil, but I can't find any options like that.. I'll keep fiddling though.

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

Ah it was me being thick again.

I'd moved round the HDD's in the SATA ports, and so the BIOS had stayed the same, but of course now corresponded to different drives. And so of course Windows didn't want to install to something that wasn't the primary drive, and was never going to be booted from because it's not even on the list, let alone nearish the top..

Still got this annoying missing files thing though.

[philthomas]

If it's reporting missing fileson the Windows Disk and it's different files each time, it could be a Ram issue, try swapping the Ram around or running with just 1 or 2 (depending on your config).

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

I'm kicking myself now..

Now you mention it I remember reading about the setup only working with 2GB ram max sometimes...



I'll try it out now, then have lunch, and see if its worked or not.

Otherwise I'll install XP, copy the disc to the hard drive and install from there (Googled and found that can work)