Vista installation

[Will]

I am trying to re-install Windows Vista. it is the exact version/disc that
came with the notebook. No hardware has been installed post purchase. There
should not be any incompatability issue at all. However, when it is 80% -
90% complete with the "completing installation" portion of the installation,
it goes to a black screen with only a cursur and hard drive does not appear
to be working. Help.

 

[Jreg]

What model Notebook is it? I had a notebook and had some problems
reinstalling Vista on it. It didn't seem to want to write over the old one. I
ended up backing up the information I wanted to keep and then doing a clean
install of it after reformating my harddrive.

 

[Malke]

I am trying to re-install Windows Vista. it is the exact version/disc
that
came with the notebook. No hardware has been installed post purchase.
There
should not be any incompatability issue at all. However, when it is 80% -
90% complete with the "completing installation" portion of the
installation, it goes to a black screen with only a cursur and hard drive
does not appear
to be working. Help.

Your description of the symptoms indicates a hardware issue. Contact the
laptop mftr.'s tech support for repair/replacement.

Malke

 

[Will]

It is a Dell Inspiron. If it makes a difference I am attempting a clean
installation.

 

[Unique Display Name]

Actually it could be any number of things.

What partition are you installing to, have you done any disk formatting
during the install, are there any other versions/OSes, etc.

For example, virtually all notebooks these days come with a hidden partition
for recovery purposes. It could be that during the reboot required by fresh
installtion it is this hidden partition that boots instead of your freshly
installed version.

Do you have any way to peek at what's on the disk? Another OS, Windows on an
external drive, emergency WinPE CD, etc.

If you have your set of recovery disks maybe try to restore and start again.

 

[Will]

There are 3 partitions currently. I am installing on the one that says "OS"
(partition03OS). It is the only one that it will allow me to install on.
Partition02 is a recovery partition, however. In terms of booting - I have
changed the the boot order to start with CD/DVD and booting from the windows
vista disc and doing a clean installation. Everything seems to progress
normally except when close to the end of the process it goes blank.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

There are 3 partitions currently. I am installing on the one that says
"OS"
(partition03OS). It is the only one that it will allow me to install on.
Partition02 is a recovery partition, however. In terms of booting - I
have
changed the the boot order to start with CD/DVD and booting from the
windows
vista disc and doing a clean installation. Everything seems to progress
normally except when close to the end of the process it goes blank.

A blank screen sometimes means that Setup has switched to a different video
adaptor connector and the system is actually waiting for you to respond to
the first configuration screen (probably the choice of network type). You
just can't see it. This would explain the blank screen and no hard drive
activity.

Connect an external monitor and keep an eye on it when the installation
reaches that point again. This happens with one of my desktops. When it
does this, Setup is switching to VGA and that is commonly what the external
monitor connector is on laptops. That has been a phenomenon I have seen
with Vista since the early days of the beta program. It appears specific to
certain video adaptors. It is not supposed to happen with Vista rtm but I
have heard of it happening to a couple of people.