Vista install

[starfish_001]

I have a month old vista based pc with 2 disk installed. I noticed that the boot disk has a hidden recovery partition.

I would like to perform a clean install from slimmed (vlite) down version of the mesh supplied MS vista disk. trying this in VMware the disk works fine.

If I try installing a new version of vista - the installer seems to hang each time. The pc boots from the dvd loads files and then sits at the windows boot splash screen before the installer loads the first gui screen.


After some searching on the internet some people have reported similar problems:

1. when they have SATA drives and the the bios not set to ATA. the Mesh bois does not have the option to select ATA mode for SATA drives.
   
2. or when a hidden partition is present on the boot disk

any other suggests as to why the vista installer never really loads let alone completes?

[starfish_001]

sounds like a jmicro problem similar this

Intel® Matrix Storage Manager - Possible issues with Windows Vista* and Intel® RAID


How can this be overcome - bios does not offer ATA mode for SATA?


Other suggestions

Disconnect all drives (yes, floppy as well) except for the single SATA DVD drive you intend to use for the Vista DVD and the single hard drive you want as the installation partition. So if you have more than one hard drive disconnect all of them except the one you want to use as the install After the install and if Vista is working reconnect all the drives prior to software activation.


but this would invalidate the warranty

[chickendippers]

Are you talking to yourself?

Originally Posted by starfish_001

but this would invalidate the warranty

No it wouldn't.

[starfish_001]

Originally Posted by chickendippers

Are you talking to yourself?

No it wouldn't.

It appears I am talking to myself. I had hoped for input from others.


Breaking the Mesh seals must invalidate something.



What I would really like is someone to tell me what needs to be done to allow the standard Vista install disk to work. Having a factory config that does not allow a fresh install to suceed is a nonsense

[chickendippers]

No breaking the seal does nothing, I don't know why they put it there. Mesh operate an open-case warranty so they will honour it even if you've made modifications to the system, but they won't support the components you've added.

[starfish_001]

Originally Posted by chickendippers

No breaking the seal does nothing, I don't know why they put it there. Mesh operate an open-case warranty so they will honour it even if you've made modifications to the system, but they won't support the components you've added.

Thanks but I still need help with the installer DVD issue

[DJT298]

As mentioned by chickendippers opening the case will not invalidate your warranty unless you cause damage to any of the components through neglect. The reason they fit the seal is to confirm to you that the computer hasn't been tampered with during the time it left the factory and arrived with you.

What motherboard do you have fitted? The workaround you have linked applies to Intel chipsets but normally the motherboards Mesh supply have Nvidia chipsets so that link wouldn't apply (proberbly why you can't find the heading in the BIOS).

There are a number of possible causes for the problems you are encountering. Firstly vlite is designed to be installed prior to the install of Vista. the fact that you already have Vista installed on your machine would require you to perform a complete format first, then install vlite, then install Vista.

Secondly the recovery disc provided by Mesh although containing a full version of Vista isn't the same as a retail disc therefore some features are missing. I assume vlite requires the full retail version.

Finally as vlite requires you to make a new iso copy of vista for the install it could be that this has somehow become corrupted or the disc damaged.

[starfish_001]

Originally Posted by DJT298

As mentioned by chickendippers opening the case will not invalidate your warranty unless you cause damage to any of the components through neglect. The reason they fit the seal is to confirm to you that the computer hasn't been tampered with during the time it left the factory and arrived with you.

What motherboard do you have fitted? The workaround you have linked applies to Intel chipsets but normally the motherboards Mesh supply have Nvidia chipsets so that link wouldn't apply (proberbly why you can't find the heading in the BIOS).

There are a number of possible causes for the problems you are encountering. Firstly vlite is designed to be installed prior to the install of Vista. the fact that you already have Vista installed on your machine would require you to perform a complete format first, then install vlite, then install Vista.

Secondly the recovery disc provided by Mesh although containing a full version of Vista isn't the same as a retail disc therefore some features are missing. I assume vlite requires the full retail version.

Finally as vlite requires you to make a new iso copy of vista for the install it could be that this has somehow become corrupted or the disc damaged.

Thanks for confirming the warrant situation.


The motherboard is an ASUS p5n E SLI has the jmicron controller that causes people problems.



THe mesh disk or any disk based on it will not load the installer on this machine. THey will all work perfectly in a virtual machine. So the disk is fine. Vlite is not bothered by the version of the disk. I understand how vlite works and yes I want to completely wipe the mesh setup and perform a clean install. I am not trying to solve a problem other than removing the junk form Vista that I don't want .... like 1gb of printer drivers and all of the mesh oem software.


I know I have an Nvidia chipset the intel article provides fixes that appear to work across a range of MB. My bois does not have the option suggested - the Jmicro chipset does support it. Mesh do appear to customise the bios so they could be masking the option out. And I cannot update the bios because I have no floppy drive - ASUS don't appear to have a windows based solution.


As an aside I can slipstream XP with the jmicron driver and install that fine. But that does not solve the vista install problem



At this point in time the only option I can think of is to install an IDE drive and then install vista onto that is not a great option as I don't have a spare ide drive nor do I really want one

[Davey W]

Hi starfish_001,

Is the hidden partition still present?

Unaltered there is no reason why the recovery disc we have supplied would not install onto the drive that we have supplied, whether the hidden partition was there or not.

Davey

[starfish_001]

Originally Posted by Davey W

Hi starfish_001,

Is the hidden partition still present?

Unaltered there is no reason why the recovery disc we have supplied would not install onto the drive that we have supplied, whether the hidden partition was there or not.

Davey

And yet it does not - The hidden disk is still present. At this point I have made basically made no changes to the machine.


I have tried a number of times to reinstall Vista and the DVD always hangs before the first GUI screen. The DVD disk itself is not corrupt it will install in a VM no problem


All I want to do is reinstall a clean copy of Vista using the the Mesh supplied VISTA install disk onto the MESH hardware. This should be easy and take 30 minutes.


From my research my problem is probably due to the Jmicron STA controller. Hard to bypass as that is what my disk are connected to.



How do mesh install vista on the hardware supplied. A vista disk that will not install is rather pointless.