The drive you are installing TO must be the FIRST drive on your
machine. I was booting XP from my onchip raid setup and wanted to
install Vista(using the upgrade copy) from XP to the raid setup I had
on my secondary Raid controller(completely clean and empty drive) and
had the same issue as you. Well, the problem became that if I made my
secondary controller the boot drive, there is nothing to boot from, as
it is empty, thus I cannot run the upgrade.
What I ended up do was the following steps from here: http://
windowssecrets.com/comp/070201
This allows you to use an upgrade version of Vistaas a full version,
where you can boot and install from it. The only caveat is that you
need to do the install twice. Here are the steps, cut from the
article:
Step 1. Boot the PC from the Vista DVD.
Step 2. Select "Install Now," but do not enter the Product Key from
the Vista packaging. Leave the input box blank. Also, turn off the
option Automatically activate Windows when I'm online. In the next
dialog box that appears, confirm that you really do want to install
Vista without entering a Product Key.
Step 3. Correctly indicate the version of Vista that you're
installing: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate.
Step 4. Select the "Custom (Advanced)" install, not the "Upgrade"
install.
Step 5. Vista copies files at length and reboots itself one or more
times. Wait for the install to complete. At this point, you might
think that you could "activate" Vista, but you can't. That's because
you haven't installed the Vista upgrade yet. To do that, run the DVD's
setup.exe program again, but this time from the Vista desktop. The
easiest way to start setup again is to eject and then reinsert the
DVD.
Step 6. Click "Install Now." Select Do not get the latest updates for
installation. (You can check for these updates later.)
Step 7. This time, do enter the Product Key from the Vista packaging.
Once again, turn off the option Automatically activate Windows when
I'm online.
Step 8. On this second install, make sure to select "Upgrade," not
"Custom (Advanced)." You're not doing a clean install now, you're
upgrading to Vista.
Step 9. Wait while Vista copies files and reboots itself. No user
interaction is required. Do not boot from the DVD when asked if you'd
like to do so. Instead, wait a few seconds and the setup process will
continue on its way. Some DOS-like, character-mode menus will appear,
but don't interact with them. After a few seconds, the correct choice
will run for you automatically.
Step 10. After you click a button labeled Start in the Thank You
dialog box, Vista's login screen will eventually appear. Enter the
username and password that you selected during the first install.
You're done upgrading to Vista.
Step 11. Within 30 days, you must "activate" your copy of Vista or
it'll lose functionality. To activate Vista, click Show more details
in the Welcome Center that automatically displays upon each boot-up,
then click Activate Windows now. If you've dismissed the Welcome
Center, access the correct dialog box by clicking Start, Control
Panel, System & Maintenance, System. If you purchased a legitimate
copy of Vista, it should quickly activate over the Internet. (You can
instead activate by calling Microsoft on the phone, which avoids your
PC exchanging information with Microsoft's server.)
This was the only way I could get Vista installed to my secondary Raid
controller. The way I dual boot now is when I boot up, go into my bios
and change the boot device. It's a bit inconvenient, but then again, I
only need XP on rare occassions now.
