[Serent]

Hey everyone,

My Problem:

I have a free 100GB slice of my 250GB hard drive which I intend to use for Vista Ultimate. I insert the Ultimate DVD, the files load, and the installer starts. Everything runs smoothly, I create and format the 100GB partition and begin installation. It copies the files, unpacks them, reboots once successfully and then hangs for hours on 'completing installation...'
I've waited for it overnight on two occasions. Both times, I was met with a blank black screen and an active cursor. When I hard-boot, I make it to the green windows loading bar, which hiccups regularly. Vista never loads. (I've waited for hours and rebooted numerous times.)

My System:

I've got an ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz. I've got 2GB of Transcend JETRAM (Cheap, but well-reviewed DDR2 SDRAM) a GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB video card and a 650 watt power supply. Nothing in PCI. I've got a Seagate Barracuda 250GB SATA hard drive and some Samsung DVD burner that no longer appears on their website (though the manual is still available for download). I've got nothing besides a Logitech PS2 mouse and USB keyboard and a Sceptre monitor hooked up to the 8800 via DVI.
I'm running Ubuntu Gutsy on a 50GB partition. I'm using Linux for homework and web browsing for now, but I bought the 8800 for DX10 gaming and am very eager to get Vista working.

I've Tried:

Using GParted to write other filesystems over the failed Vista partition and then deleting them prior to trying again. (I heard that Windows has a hard time getting rid of itself.) This didn't help.

I tried installing to an older 80GB hard drive via IDE. (This was to see how much of the problem had to do with SATA drivers.) The same thing happened: All was well, but it never completed installation.

I found many posters on tech support forums with similar problems. A few people who managed to solve their problems did so by disabling certain features in the BIOS. (CPU active temperature regulation, etc.) Every time I went into my BIOS to disable the problem feature, I found it to be disabled by default. I also checked out this thread and this thread on the Tech Support Guy Forums, but didn't find anything that helped.

I would appreciate any advice you could give me. I'm at my wit's end and am really hoping to have this tackled by the end of the week. I've got that Crysis demo waiting for me! Thank you all for your consideration,

~ Serent

[Serent]

I solved this problem by nuking my hard drive and reinstalling Vista to the entire 250GB partition. It worked the first time.

I still don't know what caused the freezing in the first place, but Vista's working wonderfully now. I guess it just doesn't like to share.