Vista upgrade- stuck on "Gathering files 21%"

[odyssey64]

I have windows xp installed on my PC and I'm trying to upgrade it with Vista
Ultimate. The upgrade process will get to the "gathering files" portion and
will not get past "21%". The first time I tried the upgrade six hours went
by with it still reading "gathering files 21%". I reset the computer (even
though it said the upgrade will take several hours to finish) because I
thought it was taking too long. The second time I let the upgrade run for
18.5 hours and it still read "gathering files 21%". What gives? There's no
way it can take this long, right? Is there something else that I need to do
to get this to work? I've already run the upgrade advisor even though I know
that my pc can run Vista with no problem.

 

[Mick Murphy]

Have you disabled, or better still Uninstalled, your anti-virus?

Also, disconnect all peripherals except monitor, mouse and keyboard.

 

[BigJim]

your right it should not take that long a clean install takes a little over
an hour.