I posted the following in a Microsoft user group, so it hasn't been tested by anyone but me. However, you may want to give it a shot if you still are trying to get Vista installed.
I've been having a lot of trouble getting Vista installed myself. I tried numerous attempts to bypass the error ("Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation.") with no success. However, after almost destroying my computer keyboard out of rage, I stumbled upon a solution, maybe out of dumb luck. Vista finally installed. I'll list exactly what I did to make it install, but because I was so frustrated at the time of the solution, and I'm too afraid to try to reproduce this process, I can't guarantee this will solve everyone's problem.
I booted off of the installation DVD, my monitor displayed a grey loading bar and a text label: ?Windows is loading files?? While this bar was being shown I held down F8, ignoring the system clicking sounds. When the bar reached 100% completion, with F8 still held down, I was prompted with a menu much like the extended boot menu of a windows OS (included safe mode and such options). I let go of F8 and chose the option near the bottom labeled "Debugging Mode." From there I continued the installation as normal, selected the partition I wanted, clicked next, and, like magic, it worked.
If this is a solution, my guess is that the debug kernel disables some safety flag on this part of the instillation. So, if this works for you, tell me. If it doesn?t, I may try to retrace my steps to figure out if I did anything in addition to this to force Vista to install.
Hope this helps, Jesse.
