Vista beta 2 install problems on Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe

[Guest]

I copied both the 32 and 64 bit versions of Vista beta 2 to DVDs (the copies
were verified to be identical to the ISO image). When I try to install either
version I get the same error "An error occurred while preparing Windows Setup
to boot into the next stage of Setup". This happens just after the disk where
the image is to be copied to is selected and before any copying gets done
(the DVD reader light does not even come on).
This is not the result of a bad copy to the DVD because, in the case of the
32 bit version, I can install Vista just fine by copying the DVD image to
hard disk and running setup.
It appears that the DVD version of setup is unhappy with the machine
configuration but the same version works if the files are copied to disk!
I would like to build the 64 bit version, to take advantage of my additional
RAM, but I cannot use the same stratagem because I cannot run the 64 bit
version of setup from 32 bit WinXP.
I have tried disabling different features of the A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard
(Marvell LAN, 1394 interface, etc.) as suggested in other posts but it does
not help.
A number of posts suggest that there are problems with SATA devices. I tried
to install without any SATA device connected but that did not work either.

So, how can I build the 64 bit version?

My configuration:
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo
Athlon 64 X2, 4800+
4GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (128 mB)
ATA: 2 hard disks and 1 DVD writer (Sony)
SATA: 2 hard disks and 1 DVD writer (Plextor PX-716A)

 

[F r e e]

disconnect the IDE hard disks. it worked for me with same board. !!!!

(same problem when installing winxp64 from a cd)
nvidia should release improved chipset dirvers, this stiinks!

 

[Guest]

disconnect the IDE hard disks. it worked for me with same board. !!!!

(same problem when installing winxp64 from a cd)
nvidia should release improved chipset dirvers, this stiinks!

---------------------

Thanks "Free". Your suggestion worked. I was able to build the 64 bit
version of Vista after I disconnected the IDE hard disks. I reconnected these
disks after the build was finished.

After the install I downloaded 2 updates (AC'97 audio and ATK ACPI utility)
and I am now left with only 2 unknown devices:

- ACPI\PNPB006
- ACPI\PNPB02F

I wish the problem with the nVidia driver were at least documented in the
release notes. The nVidia chipset is popular. The workaround that you
suggested should save others a lot of time.