With Windows it is possible for a file stored on the hard drive to prevent the reinstallation or upgrade of Windows, even when using the generic format option on the Windows CD/DVD. Thus, one of the first things I try when I happen upon such a situation is use the free program DBAN to completely wipe the hard drive and start clean. It takes a little time, but it gets the job done where the Microsoft-supplied tools fail. You should then be able to install Vista normally.
Hope this helps,
John
When trying to install vista home premium I receive an error whilst it is trying to expand files, it usually gets stuck at 14% for 30+ minutes before throwing up an error message"Windows can not install the required files....Error Code 0x80070003. Although it has also got stuck at 13 and 15%.
Here is a list of all hardware currently installed on the machine.
AMD X2 64 4600+
ASUS M2V Motherboard
1gb Crucial Memory (I removed the other stick after reading a suggestion in another post)
300Gb IDE Hard drive
A PCI graphics card
The bios has been updated to the latest version. All devices including USB,LAN, Audio and the floppy drive have been disabled in bios.
I am doing a clean install and not an upgrade.
I also did have RC1 running on this machine up to a few months a go when I switched back to XP because of driver issues.
All ideas welcome. Please let me know is there is some information you think that I have left out. Thanks in advance.

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