Windows failed to start

[Bill]

My Windows Vista Business upgrade DVD won't boot. Is this normal? Are there
certain "upgrade" DVDs that aren't supposed to boot?

This is an genuine purchased Windows DVD, part number: 66J-04586.

It will install Vista, as long as I boot the computer into XP first, then
run the install program.

I've installed Vista on a few computers (site license) in my small
non-profit and it worked, but today one had a problem.

It's getting an error screen: Windows Error Recovery - Windows failed to
start. To fix, restart, boot with the DVD and click "Repair your computer"

The problem is that the Vista DVD won't boot, so I can't repair Windows.
(The XP DVD will boot, so the problem is not with the drive)

Can anyone think of any way to repair this, or fix this error?

thank you,
Bill

 

[Curious]

Assuming your Bios is set up to boot from your DVD optical drive first what
happens when you reboot your computer with your Vista installation DVD in
the drive?

 

[Bill]

It’s a Dell, so the process is:
Press F12 for boot menu
At boot menu - I put in the Vista DVD and choose CD drive

Then it says
"Selected boot device not available
Press F1 to retry boot"

It makes it sound like a hardware problem, but when I put in the XP CD, it
then says:

Press any key to boot from CD

And it works, it boots into the XP install.

I've tried this on other computers and get the same result. It won't boot
from this DVD, but I can install Vista from this DVD, on a computer that has
XP installed.

 

[Curious]

Is is possible that you are trying to use a Vista DVD installation in a CD
capable only drive?

 

[danielw]

i am having this same problem. I keep wiping the hard drive/reformatting and
reinstalling but it keeps coming up to this screen. any ideas?

 

[Curious]

As I pointed to Bill his optical may only be a CD drive and not CD/DVD
drive.
And he can boot the XP installation disk because it is a CD disk unlike the
Vista installation disk which is a DVD disk.