My advice is to forget any build whichever it is 5536 etc. pre-RC1--go onto
installing the milestone build RC1 and see what you think is the hand that
MSFT has dealt you as they rush to RTM internally about October 25. I'm
afraid I cannot stop them and will have to just relegate my wanting Jim
Allchin and his brain trust to take 6 more months to good ideas (to me)
that aren't going to happen.
1) Eric any of us who have had some bumps along the way installing Vista
feel your pain but before you spend much more time--and I hate to retreat
from any struggle from my boxes who become human adversaries in times like
these--right now MSFT has posted the download of RC1 for the CPP --they've
been sending emails to the prior CPP participants in stages, and I supsect
after some time for them to download, they will open the Product keys up to
the rest of the people who want to use them.
2) So instead of whatever build is pre-RC1 to you, I'd focuse efforts on
RC1. I don't know what keys your using, but maybe you have the correct key
to use.
3) Don't upgrade from a previous Vista Beta. I'm not saying you can't, but
after all there is still debugged code and there are pitfalls so clean up a
drive and install Vista as a non-upgrade. I'll stay away from the
metaphysical, epistemological discussions about every install of Vista being
clean as a whistle. I understand but recommend you don't upgrade from the
Beta to Beta or from a Beta to RTM even though I'm sure you could make any
scenario happen. Give yourself maximal chance so you can spend more time
enjoying Vista, comparing it to your take on Beta 2 and really drill the
features and read up on them. There are a lot of very well done sites now
with fine info, and plenty of great stuff on the MSDN and Technet blogs on
Vista as deep as you might want to dive as they say.
4) If you are on SATA or RAID make sure that you install the appropriate
drivers early in setup after the PK is requested.
5) If you're going to dual boot, try to install within XP with XP on the box
first. If that does not complete, then restart.
6) Use the Akami server download I've provided that MSFT is offering. It's
very fast--I tested it a couple weeks ago when they opened up 5536 although
I already had it to see what the download speeds were with Akami.
http://www.akamai.com/en/html/misc/support_faq.html
32 bit RC1 MSFT Akami Server download
http://download.windowsvista.com/pr....060829-2230_x86fre_client-lr1cfre_en_dvd.iso
64 Bit RC1 MSFT Akami Server download
http://download.windowsvista.com/pr...060829-2230_x64fre_client-lr1cxfre_en_dvd.iso
1) Burn slowly. 4X should be fine. Some of this probably varies with
theDVD writer and the media.
2) Make sure to select an ISO tab if there is one on the burning software,
and make sure to close the session on the burn.
3)Try this tweak on your Windows XP drive and burn from there:
Get to Dev Manager by typing devmgmt.msc in run/win key + pause break or
Rt.click My Computer>Prop>hardware tab>Device Manager if you like 5 steps
instead of one cmd. If you're set to PMI here change to DMO and if set to
DMO change to PMI using these 5 steps:
1) Click the + in front of IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
2) Double Click the Secondary IDE Controller
3) Click Advanced Settings
4) Under Device 1 Next to Transfer Mode choose DMA (or vise versa)>Click
OK
5) Reboot your System
6) Check your download with the CRC hashes here and read the post release
RC1 notes.
Signatures of the ISO files:
32-Bit
MD5 hash: 22486e815a38feffd9667317dfeec55a
SHA1 hash: e00b4ebbc81fb420cf047973b95a9cfb7cdf51b7
64-Bit
MD5 hash: f3a385aae6e4dea9226e31d9f1148b56
SHA1 hash: 8e4de7a72c828a3543ff1663243eb0836da07eea
When you start to burn the iso, check the box that says validate the burn
when through.
*Definitely read the post RC1 release notes--in deference to the boys and
girls at Redmond MSFT they're not the usual "yada yada" as Google is wont to
say.
Post Release notes Vista RC1
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...5d-d72c-478c-ab10-c733a69c0200&DisplayLang=en
Good luck,
CH
