Okay I'm banging my head off the wall trying to figure this one out.

I've got a Sony SATA DVD/CD burner drive plugged in to an EVGA 790i
Ultra MoBo connected to a Western Digital 300gb VelociRaptor SATA HD and
each component is fresh out of the box. Vista is the first OS I've
tried to load on this machine. Every time I try to load Vista x64
Ultimate onto my hard drive I get an error message saying:

"Windows cannot prepare your computer to boot to the next phase of
installation"

As Vista is installing on my computer it warns me that my computer will
restart several times during installation, but it never restarts. It
gets through the Copying Files phase, the Expanding files phase, and on
to the Installing Updates phase before it gives me the above error
message.

Here's what I've tried to correct the problem:
-- I tried repairing my computer via the Vista DVD

-- I pulled an IDE DVD ROM drive from my old computer and tried to load
Vista from there.

-- I bought a brand new retail WD VelociRaptor HD from Fry's and tried
to install Vista on that. (My original HD was an OEM)

-- I have tried loading Vista on my hard drive both in a RAID array and
without defining a RAID array.

-- I pulled a 3 year old Maxtor SATA HD from my other computer,
formatted it, and tried to load Vista on that.

-- I have called EVGA Tech Support to ask if I need SATA drivers to
install Vista. (They told me Vista should load without any 3rd party
drivers.)

-- I have called Western Digital Tech Support and they told me to boot
my computer from their Data Lifeguard Tools CD, but my computer doesn't
recognize that CD as bootable.

And that's everything I can think of to try. Nothing I did made any
difference.

Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks in advance.


--
BGibson

"BGibson" wrote in message
...

Okay I'm banging my head off the wall trying to figure this one out.

I've got a Sony SATA DVD/CD burner drive plugged in to an EVGA 790i
Ultra MoBo connected to a Western Digital 300gb VelociRaptor SATA HD and
each component is fresh out of the box. Vista is the first OS I've
tried to load on this machine. Every time I try to load Vista x64
Ultimate onto my hard drive I get an error message saying:

"Windows cannot prepare your computer to boot to the next phase of
installation"

As Vista is installing on my computer it warns me that my computer will
restart several times during installation, but it never restarts. It
gets through the Copying Files phase, the Expanding files phase, and on
to the Installing Updates phase before it gives me the above error
message.

Here's what I've tried to correct the problem:
-- I tried repairing my computer via the Vista DVD

-- I pulled an IDE DVD ROM drive from my old computer and tried to load
Vista from there.

-- I bought a brand new retail WD VelociRaptor HD from Fry's and tried
to install Vista on that. (My original HD was an OEM)

-- I have tried loading Vista on my hard drive both in a RAID array and
without defining a RAID array.

-- I pulled a 3 year old Maxtor SATA HD from my other computer,
formatted it, and tried to load Vista on that.

-- I have called EVGA Tech Support to ask if I need SATA drivers to
install Vista. (They told me Vista should load without any 3rd party
drivers.)

-- I have called Western Digital Tech Support and they told me to boot
my computer from their Data Lifeguard Tools CD, but my computer doesn't
recognize that CD as bootable.

And that's everything I can think of to try. Nothing I did made any
difference.

Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks in advance.




At the start of the installation
Vista prompts you to ask if you need to install add'l drivers

at that pint you should have said "yes"

then, when asked, pointed the installer to your chipset and/or SATA drivers
that would have come on your mobo's CD.

Note: Vista is *not* XP...and does not require the drivers to be on a cd.
A USB thumbdrive is also supported