unable to reinstall

[Rob]

I had tried installing vista on a slave drive so I could dual boot xp.
However the install failed and I had to format the drive and delete the boot
manager. Somehow there's still a trace of vista or something that is
preventing me from installing again.

When I boot from the dvd I can see the small gray loading bar that says
loading files. Then shortly after that I can see the windows vista loading
screen... actually it's just the green progress bar animation without any
logo above it. After that goes away I just get a black screen and nothing
happens. (I disabled all other HD's except the one I want to install vista
on so it doesn't try and dual boot)

How can I fix this problem so I can try installing vista again?

BTW, after formatting the drive I had installed vista on, I used VistaBoot
Pro to remove the vista entries.

Now all I have is
Entry # 1

Name: Earlier Version of Windows
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Boot Drive: C:
Windows Drive:
System Bootloader: \ntldr
Windows Directory:

 

[Rob]

Also, if I try to boot from the cd without disabling the other hard drives
all I get is the vista background image and a mouse icon but no menu items
to install/upgrade etc.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Boot a WinXP CD and enter the Recovery Console, run fixmbr and fixboot to
rewrite the boot sector back to XP's. Now enable the drive that has the
volume designated as "active" by the system, then boot the Vista disk and
start install. Vista setup has to be able to writed to the boot sector
during installation.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Rob]

Hi Rick, I've tried using my xp cd to do a fix boot but after choosing the
repair option it says I have no hard drives which is definitely not the
case, since I have 3 sata drives.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Then you need to first load the sata driver (not at all unusual).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Rob]

How do I load the drivers? I never got any driver disks when I got them and
I have tried the press f6 to load scsi drivers but I was hoping for some
kind of autodetect.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Rob,

Autodetect would be nice, but apparently yours aren't. So, check with the
motherboard manufacturer for such and be ready with them on floppy or other
device.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Rob]

I can't seem to find anything. My pc is a dell xps g3 they don't have any
mobo drivers on the website, and the only thing hard downloades aren't for
bootable cds or floppies.