Can't install Vista

I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed on my machines, and wanted to install the
x86. But, when I tried to install the x86 after deleting the x64 version, I
now get an error that says that "Windows is unable to find a system volume
that meets its criteria for installation." I have reformatted the drive and
all else that I can think of, but, it it continues to throw the error
message. What should I do? I am sure that my system and hardware is
sufficient to handle the Vista install, and I am trying to install to the
same drive that I had the other installed to:
Processor
2.00 gigahertz AMD 64 Opteron's (2 installed)
Main Circuit Board
Tyan Tiger K8WE
Memory Modules
2 GB RAM

I don't understand what the problem is and I hope someone here can help.

Jan

Since you mentioned "Drives" have you tried only with the 2nd one now
as the primary? In fact leave the primary now out of the machine until
OS is installed..... I am thinking the 64 bit might leave a low level driver
on machine.

Might need to contact Driver Maker and/or Microsoft.

"Jan " <no lid> wrote in message news:...
>I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed on my machines, and wanted to install the
> x86. But, when I tried to install the x86 after deleting the x64 version, I
> now get an error that says that "Windows is unable to find a system volume
> that meets its criteria for installation." I have reformatted the drive and
> all else that I can think of, but, it it continues to throw the error
> message. What should I do? I am sure that my system and hardware is
> sufficient to handle the Vista install, and I am trying to install to the
> same drive that I had the other installed to:
> Processor
> 2.00 gigahertz AMD 64 Opteron's (2 installed)
> Main Circuit Board
> Tyan Tiger K8WE
> Memory Modules
> 2 GB RAM
>
> I don't understand what the problem is and I hope someone here can help.
>
> Jan
>

Hi Spirit, yes, I have tried both drives, they are separate drives not
partitions. I have seen this happen before with another user, and they had a
very long and difficult time trying to reinstall. I don't see why it is so
difficult to reinstall Vista on a drive that it has been installed on before
if the drive has a) been deleted and b) reformatted. There is not reason I
can think of that should prevent the installation for seeing my drives as
having the sufficient criteria for installation. That is what is the
problem, and I have never seen this before, and I have done a lot of
reinstalls during the Vista beta. And yes, I have done a test on the drives
and they test fine.

Jan

"Spirit" <> wrote in message
news:%...
Since you mentioned "Drives" have you tried only with the 2nd one now
as the primary? In fact leave the primary now out of the machine until
OS is installed..... I am thinking the 64 bit might leave a low level driver
on machine.

Might need to contact Driver Maker and/or Microsoft.

"Jan " <no lid> wrote in message
news:...
>I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed on my machines, and wanted to install
>the
> x86. But, when I tried to install the x86 after deleting the x64 version,
> I
> now get an error that says that "Windows is unable to find a system volume
> that meets its criteria for installation." I have reformatted the drive
> and
> all else that I can think of, but, it it continues to throw the error
> message. What should I do? I am sure that my system and hardware is
> sufficient to handle the Vista install, and I am trying to install to the
> same drive that I had the other installed to:
> Processor
> 2.00 gigahertz AMD 64 Opteron's (2 installed)
> Main Circuit Board
> Tyan Tiger K8WE
> Memory Modules
> 2 GB RAM
>
> I don't understand what the problem is and I hope someone here can help.
>
> Jan
>

I am still thinking a low level driver left on system.

"Jan " <> wrote in message news:...
> Hi Spirit, yes, I have tried both drives, they are separate drives not
> partitions. I have seen this happen before with another user, and they had a
> very long and difficult time trying to reinstall. I don't see why it is so
> difficult to reinstall Vista on a drive that it has been installed on before
> if the drive has a) been deleted and b) reformatted. There is not reason I
> can think of that should prevent the installation for seeing my drives as
> having the sufficient criteria for installation. That is what is the
> problem, and I have never seen this before, and I have done a lot of
> reinstalls during the Vista beta. And yes, I have done a test on the drives
> and they test fine.
>
> Jan
>
> "Spirit" <> wrote in message
> news:%...
> Since you mentioned "Drives" have you tried only with the 2nd one now
> as the primary? In fact leave the primary now out of the machine until
> OS is installed..... I am thinking the 64 bit might leave a low level driver
> on machine.
>
> Might need to contact Driver Maker and/or Microsoft.
>
> "Jan " <no lid> wrote in message
> news:...
>>I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed on my machines, and wanted to install
>>the
>> x86. But, when I tried to install the x86 after deleting the x64 version,
>> I
>> now get an error that says that "Windows is unable to find a system volume
>> that meets its criteria for installation." I have reformatted the drive
>> and
>> all else that I can think of, but, it it continues to throw the error
>> message. What should I do? I am sure that my system and hardware is
>> sufficient to handle the Vista install, and I am trying to install to the
>> same drive that I had the other installed to:
>> Processor
>> 2.00 gigahertz AMD 64 Opteron's (2 installed)
>> Main Circuit Board
>> Tyan Tiger K8WE
>> Memory Modules
>> 2 GB RAM
>>
>> I don't understand what the problem is and I hope someone here can help.
>>
>> Jan
>>
>

Run Setup repair mode, start up a command prompt, and see if there is an
option to "fixmbr" or something like that. This command prompt doesn't have
as many commands as XP Recovery Console, but there are a few useful ones.
Then you may have to repartition the drive, even though you have reformatted
it. As they say, there may be a low level Vista x64 driver or boot block
left on the system. It is also possible that the x64 partition which you
formatted is the wrong "type" to install x86. I am thinking that you need
to delete a partition, create a new one, and then format it in x86 Setup.
You may also have to mark the desired boot partition as active. There is a
program "bootsect" in the "boot" directory of the install DVD, which
installs the Vista Boot Manager, also something called "bcdedit" which you
may have to get involved with. These are documented more fully in TechNet
http://technet.microsoft.com.

Good luck,

Earle

"Spirit" <> wrote in message
news:%...
I am still thinking a low level driver left on system.

"Jan " <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi Spirit, yes, I have tried both drives, they are separate drives not
> partitions. I have seen this happen before with another user, and they had
> a
> very long and difficult time trying to reinstall. I don't see why it is
> so
> difficult to reinstall Vista on a drive that it has been installed on
> before
> if the drive has a) been deleted and b) reformatted. There is not reason
> I
> can think of that should prevent the installation for seeing my drives as
> having the sufficient criteria for installation. That is what is the
> problem, and I have never seen this before, and I have done a lot of
> reinstalls during the Vista beta. And yes, I have done a test on the
> drives
> and they test fine.
>
> Jan
>
> "Spirit" <> wrote in message
> news:%...
> Since you mentioned "Drives" have you tried only with the 2nd one now
> as the primary? In fact leave the primary now out of the machine until
> OS is installed..... I am thinking the 64 bit might leave a low level
> driver
> on machine.
>
> Might need to contact Driver Maker and/or Microsoft.
>
> "Jan " <no lid> wrote in message
> news:...
>>I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed on my machines, and wanted to install
>>the
>> x86. But, when I tried to install the x86 after deleting the x64 version,
>> I
>> now get an error that says that "Windows is unable to find a system
>> volume
>> that meets its criteria for installation." I have reformatted the drive
>> and
>> all else that I can think of, but, it it continues to throw the error
>> message. What should I do? I am sure that my system and hardware is
>> sufficient to handle the Vista install, and I am trying to install to the
>> same drive that I had the other installed to:
>> Processor
>> 2.00 gigahertz AMD 64 Opteron's (2 installed)
>> Main Circuit Board
>> Tyan Tiger K8WE
>> Memory Modules
>> 2 GB RAM
>>
>> I don't understand what the problem is and I hope someone here can help.
>>
>> Jan
>>
>

some drives need 3rd party SATA or Raid drivers? at the beginning of the
install Windows gives you the opportunity to install third party drivers for
your drives. I would suggest getting on a machine that works and go to your
mfg website and get the specs for the hard drives.



"Jan " <no lid> wrote in message
news:...
>I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed on my machines, and wanted to install
>the x86. But, when I tried to install the x86 after deleting the x64
>version, I now get an error that says that "Windows is unable to find a
>system volume that meets its criteria for installation." I have
>reformatted the drive and all else that I can think of, but, it it
>continues to throw the error message. What should I do? I am sure that my
>system and hardware is sufficient to handle the Vista install, and I am
>trying to install to the same drive that I had the other installed to:
> Processor
> 2.00 gigahertz AMD 64 Opteron's (2 installed)
> Main Circuit Board
> Tyan Tiger K8WE
> Memory Modules
> 2 GB RAM
>
> I don't understand what the problem is and I hope someone here can help.
>
> Jan
>

That is beyond doable, if you read my post, as the drives have both been
deleted and reformatted. so I don't think there is any chance of a repair.
Trying a repair is what got me into the mess in the first place, as when I
tried to do a repair, it said it could not repair the problem, and then when
I tried to boot back into Vista, I got an error in the command window that
said it could not find the OS. Imagine that. :-)

Jan

"Earle Horton" <earleh_nospam_@live.com> wrote in message
news:...
> Run Setup repair mode, start up a command prompt, and see if there is an
> option to "fixmbr" or something like that. This command prompt doesn't
> have as many commands as XP Recovery Console, but there are a few useful
> ones. Then you may have to repartition the drive, even though you have
> reformatted it. As they say, there may be a low level Vista x64 driver or
> boot block left on the system. It is also possible that the x64 partition
> which you formatted is the wrong "type" to install x86. I am thinking
> that you need to delete a partition, create a new one, and then format it
> in x86 Setup. You may also have to mark the desired boot partition as
> active. There is a program "bootsect" in the "boot" directory of the
> install DVD, which installs the Vista Boot Manager, also something called
> "bcdedit" which you may have to get involved with. These are documented
> more fully in TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com.
>
> Good luck,
>
> Earle
>
> "Spirit" <> wrote in message
> news:%...
> I am still thinking a low level driver left on system.
>
> "Jan " <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Hi Spirit, yes, I have tried both drives, they are separate drives not
>> partitions. I have seen this happen before with another user, and they
>> had a
>> very long and difficult time trying to reinstall. I don't see why it is
>> so
>> difficult to reinstall Vista on a drive that it has been installed on
>> before
>> if the drive has a) been deleted and b) reformatted. There is not reason
>> I
>> can think of that should prevent the installation for seeing my drives
>> as
>> having the sufficient criteria for installation. That is what is the
>> problem, and I have never seen this before, and I have done a lot of
>> reinstalls during the Vista beta. And yes, I have done a test on the
>> drives
>> and they test fine.
>>
>> Jan
>>
>> "Spirit" <> wrote in message
>> news:%...
>> Since you mentioned "Drives" have you tried only with the 2nd one now
>> as the primary? In fact leave the primary now out of the machine until
>> OS is installed..... I am thinking the 64 bit might leave a low level
>> driver
>> on machine.
>>
>> Might need to contact Driver Maker and/or Microsoft.
>>
>> "Jan " <no lid> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>>I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed on my machines, and wanted to install
>>>the
>>> x86. But, when I tried to install the x86 after deleting the x64
>>> version,
>>> I
>>> now get an error that says that "Windows is unable to find a system
>>> volume
>>> that meets its criteria for installation." I have reformatted the drive
>>> and
>>> all else that I can think of, but, it it continues to throw the error
>>> message. What should I do? I am sure that my system and hardware is
>>> sufficient to handle the Vista install, and I am trying to install to
>>> the
>>> same drive that I had the other installed to:
>>> Processor
>>> 2.00 gigahertz AMD 64 Opteron's (2 installed)
>>> Main Circuit Board
>>> Tyan Tiger K8WE
>>> Memory Modules
>>> 2 GB RAM
>>>
>>> I don't understand what the problem is and I hope someone here can help.
>>>
>>> Jan
>>>
>>
>
>

OK...I am not that knowledgeable about all this, so how can there be a low
level driver left on a drive that has not only been first deleted, and then
formatted? Not arguing, but, I am confused as to how such could still be
left after all that? If what you say is true, then, how do a) get rid of
it, or b) be able to reinstall with it?

Jan

"Spirit" <> wrote in message
news:%...
I am still thinking a low level driver left on system.

"Jan " <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi Spirit, yes, I have tried both drives, they are separate drives not
> partitions. I have seen this happen before with another user, and they had
> a
> very long and difficult time trying to reinstall. I don't see why it is
> so
> difficult to reinstall Vista on a drive that it has been installed on
> before
> if the drive has a) been deleted and b) reformatted. There is not reason
> I
> can think of that should prevent the installation for seeing my drives as
> having the sufficient criteria for installation. That is what is the
> problem, and I have never seen this before, and I have done a lot of
> reinstalls during the Vista beta. And yes, I have done a test on the
> drives
> and they test fine.
>
> Jan
>
> "Spirit" <> wrote in message
> news:%...
> Since you mentioned "Drives" have you tried only with the 2nd one now
> as the primary? In fact leave the primary now out of the machine until
> OS is installed..... I am thinking the 64 bit might leave a low level
> driver
> on machine.
>
> Might need to contact Driver Maker and/or Microsoft.
>
> "Jan " <no lid> wrote in message
> news:...
>>I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed on my machines, and wanted to install
>>the
>> x86. But, when I tried to install the x86 after deleting the x64 version,
>> I
>> now get an error that says that "Windows is unable to find a system
>> volume
>> that meets its criteria for installation." I have reformatted the drive
>> and
>> all else that I can think of, but, it it continues to throw the error
>> message. What should I do? I am sure that my system and hardware is
>> sufficient to handle the Vista install, and I am trying to install to the
>> same drive that I had the other installed to:
>> Processor
>> 2.00 gigahertz AMD 64 Opteron's (2 installed)
>> Main Circuit Board
>> Tyan Tiger K8WE
>> Memory Modules
>> 2 GB RAM
>>
>> I don't understand what the problem is and I hope someone here can help.
>>
>> Jan
>>
>

I have them and have installed them, but, that does not seem to work either,

Jan

"KDE" <> wrote in message
news:u$...
> some drives need 3rd party SATA or Raid drivers? at the beginning of the
> install Windows gives you the opportunity to install third party drivers
> for your drives. I would suggest getting on a machine that works and go
> to your mfg website and get the specs for the hard drives.
>
>
>
> "Jan " <no lid> wrote in message
> news:...
>>I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed on my machines, and wanted to install
>>the x86. But, when I tried to install the x86 after deleting the x64
>>version, I now get an error that says that "Windows is unable to find a
>>system volume that meets its criteria for installation." I have
>>reformatted the drive and all else that I can think of, but, it it
>>continues to throw the error message. What should I do? I am sure that
>>my system and hardware is sufficient to handle the Vista install, and I am
>>trying to install to the same drive that I had the other installed to:
>> Processor
>> 2.00 gigahertz AMD 64 Opteron's (2 installed)
>> Main Circuit Board
>> Tyan Tiger K8WE
>> Memory Modules
>> 2 GB RAM
>>
>> I don't understand what the problem is and I hope someone here can help.
>>
>> Jan
>>
>
>

So you deleted the old x64 partition, installed an x86 partition, and then
reformatted that in x86 Setup? Now run the x86 Install disk, system repair
option, and see if there is any hope presented there. What you may have
left of the x64 install, is an x64 "Master Boot Record", computerese for x64
claiming this disk as belonging to x64. You may have to put x86 system
repair into command prompt mode, type "help" or "?" and see what commands
are available. If there is a "fixmbr" listed run it.

Good luck,

Earle

"Jan " <> wrote in message
news:%...
> That is beyond doable, if you read my post, as the drives have both been
> deleted and reformatted. so I don't think there is any chance of a repair.
> Trying a repair is what got me into the mess in the first place, as when I
> tried to do a repair, it said it could not repair the problem, and then
> when I tried to boot back into Vista, I got an error in the command window
> that said it could not find the OS. Imagine that. :-)
>
> Jan
>
> "Earle Horton" <earleh_nospam_@live.com> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Run Setup repair mode, start up a command prompt, and see if there is an
>> option to "fixmbr" or something like that. This command prompt doesn't
>> have as many commands as XP Recovery Console, but there are a few useful
>> ones. Then you may have to repartition the drive, even though you have
>> reformatted it. As they say, there may be a low level Vista x64 driver
>> or boot block left on the system. It is also possible that the x64
>> partition which you formatted is the wrong "type" to install x86. I am
>> thinking that you need to delete a partition, create a new one, and then
>> format it in x86 Setup. You may also have to mark the desired boot
>> partition as active. There is a program "bootsect" in the "boot"
>> directory of the install DVD, which installs the Vista Boot Manager, also
>> something called "bcdedit" which you may have to get involved with.
>> These are documented more fully in TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com.
>>
>> Good luck,
>>
>> Earle
>>
>> "Spirit" <> wrote in message
>> news:%...
>> I am still thinking a low level driver left on system.
>>
>> "Jan " <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Hi Spirit, yes, I have tried both drives, they are separate drives not
>>> partitions. I have seen this happen before with another user, and they
>>> had a
>>> very long and difficult time trying to reinstall. I don't see why it is
>>> so
>>> difficult to reinstall Vista on a drive that it has been installed on
>>> before
>>> if the drive has a) been deleted and b) reformatted. There is not
>>> reason I
>>> can think of that should prevent the installation for seeing my drives
>>> as
>>> having the sufficient criteria for installation. That is what is the
>>> problem, and I have never seen this before, and I have done a lot of
>>> reinstalls during the Vista beta. And yes, I have done a test on the
>>> drives
>>> and they test fine.
>>>
>>> Jan
>>>
>>> "Spirit" <> wrote in message
>>> news:%...
>>> Since you mentioned "Drives" have you tried only with the 2nd one now
>>> as the primary? In fact leave the primary now out of the machine until
>>> OS is installed..... I am thinking the 64 bit might leave a low level
>>> driver
>>> on machine.
>>>
>>> Might need to contact Driver Maker and/or Microsoft.
>>>
>>> "Jan " <no lid> wrote in message
>>> news:...
>>>>I had Vista Ultimate x64 installed on my machines, and wanted to install
>>>>the
>>>> x86. But, when I tried to install the x86 after deleting the x64
>>>> version,
>>>> I
>>>> now get an error that says that "Windows is unable to find a system
>>>> volume
>>>> that meets its criteria for installation." I have reformatted the
>>>> drive
>>>> and
>>>> all else that I can think of, but, it it continues to throw the error
>>>> message. What should I do? I am sure that my system and hardware is
>>>> sufficient to handle the Vista install, and I am trying to install to
>>>> the
>>>> same drive that I had the other installed to:
>>>> Processor
>>>> 2.00 gigahertz AMD 64 Opteron's (2 installed)
>>>> Main Circuit Board
>>>> Tyan Tiger K8WE
>>>> Memory Modules
>>>> 2 GB RAM
>>>>
>>>> I don't understand what the problem is and I hope someone here can
>>>> help.
>>>>
>>>> Jan
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>