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General discussion

Vista Upgrade Re-install Madness

Feb 13, 2007 1:31PM PST

I am not a guru or geek - just regular dumb. Started with XP 64 bit version. Installed Vista Ultimate 64 bit Ver via a "clean" install choice. It installed just fine and worked well. But I DID not recognize the installation choice window that asks for the installation of another driver external to Vista - I had been informed that this choice would be in Vista and that it was the place for me to install Intel RAID driver to create RAID arrays. Since I had forgotten to do that, I tried to reinstall Ultimate over itself via a second clean install and set up the 2 RAID arrays I want. All went normally including the acceptance of teh Intel RAID driver and then my 1st array appeared in a window. Pressing continue caused Vista to continue to do it's install thing for about 2 minutes.At that time it stopped. Error message declared that Vista could NOT copy files need for the install, that I should have the necessary files handy (unspecified of course)and then restart install. Repeats brought the same result. Chat session with MS support was a disaster. Called MS support but they quickly ran out of options and could not resolve my issue. Finally one tech booted me "upstairs to an upper level supervisor who has still not resolved what will ultimately be a very common problem - reinstallation of their software for any number of valid reasons. But what a QUAGMIRE. And iof course, since I had not activated my initial install, the activation clock runs> My system is dual core2 with most powerful Intel and ATI stuff available. Issue is not compatibility since all ran well the first time. Anyone have ideas about this? I read there is some disagreemnet in the forum and Microsoft sure can't give difinitive answers.

Discussion is locked

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So, who builds and supports that machine?
Feb 14, 2007 3:26AM PST

I didn't read who did all the integration work to make sure you wouldn't run into this issue.

Bob

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Vista Upgrade Reonstall Madness
Feb 14, 2007 10:59AM PST

I admitted up front that it was operator error. I worked out my own solution and fixed the RAID issue. BUT crashes WILL occur and re-installs WILL be necessary, so just how do us commoners do the job when MS tech support doesn't know?