[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Computer specs in sig. I'm trying to install Vista x64 to use all 6GB of RAM that i just got. When i boot the DVD it loads then freezes at the Aurora background with just the mouse cursor displayed. I can move the mouse around, just that it doesn't do anything else. If i remove the primary partition prior to booting it will freeze on a black screen, and again, i can just move the mouse. With the primary partition present it freezes at the background as i said above.

I have tried:

IDE/AHCI mode
Disabling the overclock
Running with only 1GB and 3GB instead of all 6GB (and yes the memory is okay)
RAID floppy driver disk (but hitting F6 does nothing)
BIOS update

Now here's the weirdest part. If i disconnect the HDD it will get to the install menu. But what the f*** am i supposed to install it to then?

So is there any way to get this working? If not, i'll be back to 2GB RAM and 32-bit XP.

This post has been edited by Th3_uN1Qu3: 27 June 2008 - 12:15 PM

[CoffeeFiend]

Strange. That board uses a plain old ICH9 controller.

My very similar board (main diff is, it uses ICH9R) works just fine, with the stock Vista installer (haven't tried x64 though). No drivers or anything necessary (running overclocked and all too).

Strange for sure.

[Mr Snrub]

SATA (or SATA 2) disk I assume?
And it's just a single disk, no RAID setup?

I don't know how many SATA controllers & ports that mobo has, but have you tried swapping?
I would forget AHCI, stick with regular IDE emulation mode.

Is the media SP1?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Yes it is SP1.

It seems it didn't like my partitions, i finally got it working by first formatting the partition with an XP disc. Then Hiren's Boot CD did the rest - of course, it also screwed my storage partition in the process as Paragon Partition Manager got hung. But as i didn't overwrite anything, the data is still there and waiting to be recovered.

Vista is now installing, i'll worry about data recovery once i see it running.

This post has been edited by Th3_uN1Qu3: 27 June 2008 - 01:53 PM

[Zxian]

By disabling the overclock, did you mean that you reset everything in the BIOS to default/auto settings?

Have you tried wiping the drive entirely? I'm not sure why, but a corrupt partition table might affect the installation. Have you run a full SMART diagnostics test on that hard drive? Grab the latest UBCD and use the tools on there.

When you remove the primary partition beforehand - how long do you wait until you decide that it's frozen? I've had a couple of Vista installs take a couple of minutes to detect the hard drive before letting me proceed.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Zxian, on Jun 27 2008, 10:52 PM, said:

Have you tried wiping the drive entirely? I'm not sure why, but a corrupt partition table might affect the installation.

Read the above post, that was it. Unfortunately i need some of the the data i had on my other partition back, but i'll worry about that later.

[Mr Snrub]

Hmm, I've not seen that symptom since before beta 2 - I ran into it myself and found no partitions or letting Vista create the partition during install made it fail on the first boot.
The workaround I used was to hit shift-F10 to bring up a command prompt window before setup reached the disk/partition selection screen, then use diskpart to create the partition and format it, then exit the command prompt and continue setup.

The problem was specific to my A8N-SLI Premium, the other systems didn't have that problem, even using RAID0'd Raptors.

By RTM the in-box drivers Asus gave MS resolved the issue without the workaround.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Mr Snrub, on Jun 27 2008, 11:03 PM, said:

Hmm, I've not seen that symptom since before beta 2 - I ran into it myself and found no partitions or letting Vista create the partition during install made it fail on the first boot.
The workaround I used was to hit shift-F10 to bring up a command prompt window before setup reached the disk/partition selection screen, then use diskpart to create the partition and format it, then exit the command prompt and continue setup.

Well, only if i knew that earlier. Now it's almost done installing, and i'm positive i'll be able to recover all my data as well.