Vista beta2 Installation Error

[Guest]

I am trying to clean install Vista beta2 DVD x86 English (0406
Part#X11-71068-02 Bootable) received from Microsoft (thro merawindows.com).
But after enetring the activation key I am getting this message:
"Setup failed to open the windows image file" and I am not able to proceed
further.

Also When in XP if i just insert the DVD to see the contents , it autoruns
and shows this message :"The application or DLL G:\sources\SPWIZENG.DLL is
not a windows image. Please check this against your installation diskette"

Also I am not able to copy majority of contents from DVD to harddisk , nor
am I able to create a copy of this DVD .
So what could be the problem? Is the DVD from MS is corrupt?
I am having AMD Athlon XP 2000+ with Asus Board .
How to distinguish between 32 bit edition of Vista from 64 bit edition?

Anybody else facing this problem? How to resolve this?

 

[Guest]

--
peanut

 

[Chad Harris]

Peanut--

That message to me represents it's a problem with your burn.

I don't know what burning software you are using. Make sure that you are
"burning" the iso with it--and if, like Nero, it has a tab for Iso, it's
helpful to click that first. Milage varies with different burners and
media. We've seen all kinds of claims DVD+ will burn--DVD- will burn. I
remember early on in the Beta that Vinnie Flynt from the setup team would
get messages that every type of format burned better, but these tips may
help you.

I know how frustrating it is, but try reburnning as slowly as your burning
software will let you. Generally 4X is fine; MSFT advises 1X in release
notes, but not all burners do that.

Also I'm providing a CRC checking utility for Beta 2. You can use this to
check the integrity of your burn. If your husband is on the TBT, he has
access to theirs but this one was from the a MFST site although they adopted
this one from 3rd party. Won't be long that after dropping to TBTs they
will drop whatever branch of RC1 to CPP so keep that in mind as far as your
time investment in installing programs and working with Beta 2 since it will
be builds newer at about 5506 or ballparks of those numbers. Screenshots
etc. of that build are all over the web.

Make sure when you reburn you do it from within XP and run the setup that
will show up on the XP desktop--this will prevent your drive letters from
being reset via dictaion from the bios (in other words I advise burning from
XP and running Vista setup from XP rather than restarting and running setup
from the DVD if you are trying to dual boot.

Reburn Option:

1) Burn slowly. 4X should be fine. Some of this probably varies with the
DVD 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 burn with a CRC utility and the links for this are below:
Obtain the CRC Utility for Vista Beta 2 Here: (The CRC utility is a way to
checkthe integrity of the ISO Burn which is probably where your problem
lies--it's #1 on the list):

Here's a link:

The CRC utility for Beta 2 is contained here (Scroll down to the bottom
under "Additional Information"

Microsoft® Windows® Software Development Kit (SDK) for Beta 2 of Windows
Vista and WinFX Runtime Components
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...73-F5EA-4B7B-B022-97755838DB94&displaylang=en

Additional Information:

To verify that your download of an ISO file for the Windows SDK Beta 2 build
is not corrupt, download the CRC Utility. (Note: this is not a Microsoft
application. Use at your own risk.)

To run the CRC test, open a command prompt and run the utility. providing it
the name of the file (i.e. crc
c:\6.0.5383.1.1.WindowsSDK_Vista_idw.DVD.Rel.img) The CRC utility will run
two tests on the ISO: it will verify if the ISO is valid, and it will give
the AutoCRC signature for the file. The AutoCRC signature for the Windows
SDK Beta 2 ISO is 0x28434EEF. You should also confirm the size of the ISO is
correct: 1.14 GB (1,229,355,008 bytes).

If it fails any of these three tests, re-download the ISO (ordinarily--but
in this case you'll have to wait for RC1 which will be soon or if you're
using Technet or MSDN whatever build they are giving you):

I really like the direct link to it though if you right click CRC here>left
click Properties:
http://tacobell.iexbeta.com/longhorn/crc.exe

Good luck,

CH

 

[Guest]

Thanks to peanut and Chad Harris for their replies.
Thanks to CH for nice tips.

But my case is, I got this Vista beta2 DVD from Microsoft , so no point of
my burning the downloaded iso.

Also I have tried to do clean install as well as upgrade. Both fails.

Even I am not able to copy majority of DVD content to hard disk.

And if i try to clean install i get the error as said.
Also to autorun in XP also getting Error as said.
Tried on another sytem also, getting same error.

So in my view the DVD itself is corrupt.

 

[Chad Harris]

I didn't know the source of your iso. I know that MSFT perceived they had
problems with their DVDs last month, and tried to do a quick pilot test to
correct it. I don't know what if any problems were, and what if anything
they did to correct them since MSFT in Fall 2006 isn't the most transparent
of companies. Currently they are not making bug reports information
retrieval open to the public--making it impossible to know what they've
attempted to fix and haven't and don't respond to this point when it's put
to them, because Mr. White has certainly be extended the opportunity as has
Mr. Snow, and Mr. Gorter posts on this group.

If I were you, I think that we have had messages from MSFT (Nick White from
the launch team) that your best alternative now is to wait for the RC1
release to the CPP sometime in September shortly after the TBT, and either
try to follow the download tips or reorder then. You might want to call
since they are accepting call activations and see if they'll ship you a
replacement. There is also a link on these groups to sign up for a shipment
from MSFT India, but I doubt they will be undergoing the expense to ship to
the US free when ever MSFT in the US wasn't shipping free to the US for the
public.

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

Vasu can you tell me what this means? What is this site that you mistyped?
Or is throw merawindows (url mistake) representing some 3rd party shipper
for MSFT?

Part#X11-71068-02 Bootable) received from Microsoft (thro merawindows.com).

Why don't you call them 1-800-426-9400 or whatever number is at the bottom
of http://suppport.microsoft.com appropriate to your area, and ask them to
get you to activation and ask them to send you a replacement?

CH

 

[Tony Hoyle]

Vasu can you tell me what this means? What is this site that you mistyped?
Or is throw merawindows (url mistake) representing some 3rd party shipper
for MSFT?

http://www.merawindows.com I'd guess. They're offering vista beta 2 DVDs

Tony

 

[Guest]

CH as Tony Hoyle already posted , I got the DVD from
http://www.merawindows.com/
I have also requested them to send another.
As you said I'll order the RC1 to be relesed later , and also enquire about
the present DVD error by calling them.
Thanks for informing me that MS had problems with their DVDs last month,
maybe that maybe the problem with my DVD.

 

[Chad Harris]

Thanks Vasu; from what I can tell that offer is confined to residents of
India but unless I'm wrong

1) You can ask them for a replacement at MSFT India
2) You still will be eligible to receive an RC1 CD when the CPP drops it
soon. As you know MSFT uses the public beta as an advertising promotion
feigning they want feedback from the public walling the public off from
their bug data. They play with their 26000+ TBT, TAP ect. for feedback.
3) I provided you with a number that is a MSFT call center that does
activate the Beta and you have recourse there.

Best of luck,

CH

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

I am trying to clean install Vista beta2 DVD x86 English (0406
Part#X11-71068-02 Bootable) received from Microsoft (thro
merawindows.com).
But after enetring the activation key I am getting this message:
"Setup failed to open the windows image file" and I am not able to proceed
further.

Also When in XP if i just insert the DVD to see the contents , it
autoruns
and shows this message :"The application or DLL G:\sources\SPWIZENG.DLL is
not a windows image. Please check this against your installation diskette"

Also I am not able to copy majority of contents from DVD to harddisk , nor
am I able to create a copy of this DVD .
So what could be the problem? Is the DVD from MS is corrupt?
I am having AMD Athlon XP 2000+ with Asus Board .
How to distinguish between 32 bit edition of Vista from 64 bit edition?

Anybody else facing this problem? How to resolve this?

I am only guessing, but...

Since Microsoft had a small group testing various DVD burning methods with
varying equipment and media, and since I'm sure there is an NDA in place
(and no, I'm not one of the testers, and no, I have no information from
anybody involved in the testing), there may well have been some sort of
problem with the discs that Microsoft (or its contractors) burned and
shipped, so it is very conceivable that even though you have an authentic
DVD it is a bad burn.

Also, and totally off-topic, since Microsoft is so concerned about DVD
burning, will they be offering Vista as a download? Just a conspiracy
theory...

To differentiate between x86 and x64, in build 5384.4:

x64 is larger on the disc, over 4GB as opposed to x86, which is a little
over 3 GB on the disc. Also, if you pop the x64 disc into a machine running
XP while it is running and try to run "Setup.exe" you will get an error
message about setup.exe not being a valid 32-bit application.

 

[Chad Harris]

If he had a bad burn with his DVD from MSFT India, Mark I supplied a CRC
checker that works for Beta 2. As for the MSFT NDA on their pilot tests of
burns, it's been all over the web as is everything else. He got his DVD
from MSFT India and he has all kinds of remedies. By the time he
straightens it out if he doesn't find a place to download and burn, The
advertising promotion RC! CPP will be giving away those sick puppies.

CH

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

If he had a bad burn with his DVD from MSFT India, Mark I supplied a CRC
checker that works for Beta 2. As for the MSFT NDA on their pilot tests of
burns, it's been all over the web as is everything else. He got his DVD
from MSFT India and he has all kinds of remedies. By the time he
straightens it out if he doesn't find a place to download and burn, The
advertising promotion RC! CPP will be giving away those sick puppies.

CH

Yeah, I know. But everyone was hinting around it, and I thought I would
just spell it out. As far as RC1 goes, I am getting the feeling that
everyone, including most in the CPP have kind of grown apathetic towards the
various problems being encountered in 5384.4 and the common solution now is
just wait a few weeks and RC1 will be the cure-all.

By the way, and totally off-topic, but perhaps of interest to you, I
received a personal email from a MSFT Connect person (Softie? Engineer?)
regarding one of my totally inane bug reports about, get this, the Sudoku
gadget having multiple solutions and therefore not being solvable by logic.
Addressed to me, uses my name, signed by the softie... Must have been his
pet? Anyways, I just thought you of all people would find this humourous;
no answers about WinRE, hypervisor malware, bad DVD's or volsnap, but "by
diggity we'll get the Sudoku working spot on!"

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Well, you now have information from someone involved in the testing. It was
a simple test. Just run Setup from the mailed dvd with the special Product
Code provided, choose Ultimate from the list of editions, complete the
installation, login, and activate. The Product Code plus Ultimate was the
combination that the test software needed to file the results with MS
automatically. Nothing could have been easier. It was build 5472. I was
hoping for some later build but no such luck.

As to your other comments, the x64 dvd can be installed from within XP x64
but not XP x86. My x64 dvd was just under 4GB for both 5384 and 5472. For
one of the builds just before 5384 the x64 dvd was almost 5GB and could only
be burned on a d/l burner. The error message you refer to does indeed show
up if you are installing from with x86 but x64 is cool.

I too have read a few posts from folks who got media from MS by mail rather
than download and who had problems installing Vista. Who knows what the
real reason behind some of those issues is. It probably had to do with
particular optical drives or BIOS's that needed to be updated.

I have seen differences between my machines that suggest that some optical
drives do better than others. Until Roxio EMC 8 came out, which supports XP
x64, I was downloading and burning on my x86 system and then using the dvd's
in the x64 system. I had problems after 5270 for a couple of builds. When
I was able to use the x64 box I had absolutely no more problems. The only
difference I know of was the optical drives in the two machines.

None of that matters anymore to me because I am replacing the x86 (P4
Northwood) with a new Core 2 Duo machine. I'm expecting it to arrive later
this week, just before the next interim build for TechBeta. I plan on
trying one of the two downloads in an optical drive on it just to see.

 

[Chad Harris]

That is funny. Must have been of special interest. If they were
consistent, and effective, in including the public in feedback and in
trying to inform them on Vista, they'd open up their chats, their Live
meetings and Connect bugs to the public.

Other than exclusivism for exclusivisms sake, I have no idea why they try to
secretize things so much but I believe the blocked access to bugs is to try
to put a camouflaged face on what really is going on.

See the www.longhornblogs.com latest blog as to musing on RC1 expectations.

CH

 

[Guest]

:

........................

I too have read a few posts from folks who got media from MS by mail rather
than download and who had problems installing Vista. Who knows what the
real reason behind some of those issues is. It probably had to do with
particular optical drives or BIOS's that needed to be updated.

Yes I also think that it could be Optical drive or BIOS?
But I dont understand why a particular optical drive doesn't support/ read
this DVD?
Mine is LG GSA 4163B DVD burner, till now i haven't had any problem with any
DVDs but this one.

And I am having Asus A7N266-VM board with Nvidia chipset, Is there any issue
with NVidia and Vista ? I have the newer version drivers installed.

What could be the reason.
Or how to find out what can be done with BIOS or DVD burner to make it read
such DVDs.

Can firmware upgrade of Burner solve this?

If anybody faced such problem with DVD writer in reading Vista DVD & were
able to resolve the problem, Please post about it.

I'll again try this DVD with some more system if it can be read successfully.
If it is read, then making a copy of the DVD on that PC , will it solve the
problem? Will it be then readable on my PC?

Thanks Colin for your comments.

More comments will be appreciated. Thanks to all.

 

[Mark D. VandenBerg]

Well, you now have information from someone involved in the testing. It
was a simple test. Just run Setup from the mailed dvd with the special
Product Code provided, choose Ultimate from the list of editions, complete
the installation, login, and activate. The Product Code plus Ultimate was
the combination that the test software needed to file the results with MS
automatically. Nothing could have been easier. It was build 5472. I was
hoping for some later build but no such luck.

As to your other comments, the x64 dvd can be installed from within XP x64
but not XP x86. My x64 dvd was just under 4GB for both 5384 and 5472.
For one of the builds just before 5384 the x64 dvd was almost 5GB and
could only be burned on a d/l burner. The error message you refer to does
indeed show up if you are installing from with x86 but x64 is cool.

I too have read a few posts from folks who got media from MS by mail
rather than download and who had problems installing Vista. Who knows
what the real reason behind some of those issues is. It probably had to
do with particular optical drives or BIOS's that needed to be updated.

I have seen differences between my machines that suggest that some optical
drives do better than others. Until Roxio EMC 8 came out, which supports
XP x64, I was downloading and burning on my x86 system and then using the
dvd's in the x64 system. I had problems after 5270 for a couple of
builds. When I was able to use the x64 box I had absolutely no more
problems. The only difference I know of was the optical drives in the two
machines.

None of that matters anymore to me because I am replacing the x86 (P4
Northwood) with a new Core 2 Duo machine. I'm expecting it to arrive
later this week, just before the next interim build for TechBeta. I plan
on trying one of the two downloads in an optical drive on it just to see.

I was aware of the ability of installing x64 Vista from inside x64 XP, but
the chances of the OP running x64 XP are quite remote so while the
information is correct, it may not be pertinent, so I made the assumption
and did not include it.

Are you sure about the size of 5384.4 x64? I am in Miami right now and have
no access to the burns or the backup copies, but I could swear the size of
5384.4 x64 was just a smidgen over 4 GB.

I see what you mean about the possibility of the error lying with the
equipment attempting to use the disc, as opposed to a factory error in the
burning. I still am reminded of Jonah who could not use his new burner and
used the oldest one he owns, successfully. Boy, trying to get the general
populous to understand and implement a firmware update of a BIOS flash,
whew!

And yes, I did know you were in the test group, as you had posted this some
time ago.

So I propose that one of us sits down, writes out a post with instructions
on burning, SATA drives, etc., forward dates it January 1 2007 and posts it
under "Read Before Posting" or something when RC1 hits. Thoughts?

 

[Guest]

I have gone through all of the earlier posts in the "Installation and setup"
section and found that MANY are facing this problem.

Also noted that this problem is mainly faced by people on Asus board / AMD
processor.

Could this Asus/AMD is causing such problem?

Other people using this can comment.

Also is there any issue in reading files with size > 2GB,
as the main image file in Vista DVD is > 2GB.

Is this causing any error?

 

[Guest]

I have gone through all of the earlier posts in the "Installation and setup"
section and found that MANY are facing this problem.

Also noted that this problem is mainly faced by people on Asus board / AMD
processor.

Could this Asus/AMD is causing such problem?

Other people using this can comment.

Also is there any issue reading files with size > 2GB as the main image file
in Vista DVD is > 2GB.

Is this causing any error?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

It didn't for me on my ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe board running an AMD64 x2 4400+.
The problem for me was the optical drives attached to my P4 Northwood system
which I was using as a helper computer until I got burning software I liked
that was compatible with XP Pro x64 on the target system.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

"Boy, trying to get the general populous to understand and implement a

firmware update of a BIOS flash, whew!"

Which is why CPP is intended for developers, IT professionals, and
technology specialists and is not a consumer preview.

The x64 .iso size for 5384 is 4.2 and for 5472 it is 3.6, so I was off on
the 5384 size. It has been steadily going down since its high point of over
5GB. This is mostly due to the shifting of drivers from the WIM file to the
Windows Update servers.

As far as XP Pro x64 is concerned, it is a lot more common among the CPP
folks than it is in the general computing public. Several folks who post
here regularly (Jane C, for one if I remember right) use it. A lot of the
folks who post in the microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general ng are testing
Vista also. Don't discount it. Those inherently interested in operating
systems are good candidates for both XP x64 and Vista beta.