Vista Installation

[shattered00]

Setup:
- OEM Vista 64 bit
- QX6700
- P5N32-E SLI
- 8800 GTX
- 2x Raptor 150gig
- 1x Caviar 320gig
- 2gig Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800mhz
- LG Media Drive (IDE)

Problem:
Upon installing Vista, I get to the screen where it asks me which hard drive to put it on. I have a selection between the three aforementioned drives. I choose to partition the 320gig drive and create a 25gig formatted partition. A warning message appears at the bottom for both Raptors stating, "This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk - Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS." No message appears for the Caviar, until you attempt to hit the "next" button. It then says," Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation." Even when I choose not to partition any drives, I get the same error message.


My BIOS is set up as follows:
Primary IDE - LG Media Drive
SATA 1 - Raptor
SATA 2 - Raptor
SATA 3 - Caviar

Priority for booting is: 1) hard disk (Caviar 1st, then SATA 1 Raptor followed by SATA 2 Raptor)
2) CDROM
3) Removable

My goal is to install Vista on the 25 gig partition created from the 320gig Caviar drive.

If more information is needed, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Snapster]

Do you have your raptor's in a raid configuration at all? Try disabling your raptors and and installing with just your Caviar.

 

[crossrode]

A 25 GB partition for Vista is small. Try 50 GB.

 

[shattered00]

Disconnecting the two Raptors worked. Vista installed on the Caviar, but the 25 gig partition is the only HD that shows up now under "my computer." The other ~280gig of the Caviar does not show up. After plugging the two Raptors back in, they don't show up either.

I didn't catch the 50gig partition needed for Vista in time. I have the OEM version, so I would have to contact Microsoft to reinstall Vista. Is there any other way for me to enlarge that partition without having to reinstall Vista?

Vista is defeating me 🙁

Please help.

 

[Snapster]

Originally posted by: shattered00
Disconnecting the two Raptors worked. Vista installed on the Caviar, but the 25 gig partition is the only HD that shows up now under "my computer." The other ~280gig of the Caviar does not show up. After plugging the two Raptors back in, they don't show up either.

I didn't catch the 50gig partition needed for Vista in time. I have the OEM version, so I would have to contact Microsoft to reinstall Vista. Is there any other way for me to enlarge that partition without having to reinstall Vista?

Vista is defeating me 🙁

Please help.

Try looking in disk management console to see if the disks are detected and not initialised/formatted.

(start > run > compmgmt.msc)

You may find you can bring the disks 'online' and format the rest of that unallocated space on the caviar. Regarding formatting, have you activated yet? If you haven't you can reformat and go over the process again, if you have you'll have to activate again which won't be a problem as you are on the same system.