"Windows is unable to find a system volume..."

"Andre Da Costa [Extended64]" wrote:
> Have you tried extracting the contents of the ISO to a directory and run
> setup from the directory?

I tried it but, predictably, no go.

I tried to install the 5308 beta and it gave me the same result, so it's
something to do with the particular hardware configuration I have.

I'm having the same issue. Trying to install on an 80gb hard drive that has
been freshly formatted. I set the partition and formatted the drive in vista
and it wont let me install on this drive.



"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
>
> I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
> 80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
> on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
> selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
> press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
> meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
> drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
> setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
> from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
> possible solution for this?

I am having similar issues. I am getting the same error:

Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for
installation.

I have a 100GB Drive that I have partitioned using Partition Commander,
which is correctly recognized by the installer:

Disk 0 Partition 1 10.0GB 1.8GB Primary
Disk 0 Partition 2 10.0GB 0.0MB Primary
Disk 0 Partition 3 15.0GB 14.9GB Primary
Disk 0 Partition 4 2.0GB 0.0MB Logical
Disk 0 Partition 5 DATA 56.4GB 46.8GB Logical

Disk 0 Partition 1 is NTFS on which I already have Windows XP Pro installed.
Disk 0 Partition 2 is Linux partition on which I have a Linux OS installed.
Disk 0 Partition 3 is a NTFS 15GB partition on which I want to install Vista
Beta2.
Disk 0 Partition 4 is Linux Swap partition
Disk 0 Partition 5 is a FAT-32 partition for data common to all OSes.

I formatted the Disk 0 Partition 3 with Vista Installer. I can see that that
partition is selected automatically by Vista Installer and the Next button is
highlighted. When I click on Next button I get the

Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for
installation.

Osho

"AmdEmAll" wrote:

> I'm having the same issue. Trying to install on an 80gb hard drive that has
> been freshly formatted. I set the partition and formatted the drive in vista
> and it wont let me install on this drive.
>
>
>
> "Grope For Luna" wrote:
>
> > I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> > problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> > releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
> >
> > I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
> > 80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
> > on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
> > selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
> > press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
> > meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
> > drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
> > setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
> > from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
> > possible solution for this?

"AmdEmAll" wrote:

> I'm having the same issue. Trying to install on an 80gb hard drive that has
> been freshly formatted. I set the partition and formatted the drive in vista
> and it wont let me install on this drive.
>
>
>
> "Grope For Luna" wrote:
>
> > I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> > problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> > releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
> >
> > I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
> > 80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
> > on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
> > selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
> > press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
> > meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
> > drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
> > setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
> > from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
> > possible solution for this?

I am having the same issue as well. Has anyone found a solution?

"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
>

I too was having this problem. I was using a WD 30GB drive. I tried it fresh
and pre-partitioned using Partition Magic & the Vista Installer. The 30GB
drive was my primary IDE master with a slave attached. But one curious thing
is the Vista installer kept offering to use the primary slave drive instead.

Just now I changed the drive config by disconnecting the primary slave and
changing the drive jumper on the 30GB drive to 'only' drive.

I didn't get the system volume error and Vista is happily installing as I
type this.

What does it all mean? I don't have a clue!
RichB

On Thu, 8 Jun 2006 17:03:01 -0700, Grope For Luna <Grope For
Luna.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
>problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
>releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
>
>I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
>80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
>on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
>selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
>press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
>meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
>drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
>setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
>from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
>possible solution for this?

Can you describe the system volume? (That would be the active primary
partition.)

"andy" wrote:
> Can you describe the system volume? (That would be the active primary
> partition.)

WD 80GB IDE Drive Primary Master

C: 15GB NTFS 16kb clusters (Active primary partition with x64) 9GB free
D: 60GB NTFS 16kb clusters (Primary partition for programs) 30GB free

Similar issue here. I have XPpro set up on my RAID-0 configuration but also
have a seperate 150GB Raptor which I use for progs and games. I partitioned
that in half, so I have a clean 75gb partition for the window Vista beta.
Now, my WinXP-Pro if 32 bit, and I am trying to install Vista Beta2 64 on the
clean partition I made. I don't think there should have been any issue.
Aside from the fact it was also giving me errors whe I downloaded the
ISO....But that is another issue.

Any ideas anyone>? I have done what other have suggested, as far as
disconnecting everything but mouse and keyboard. Still get the same system
volume error.
--
AMDFX57
2xWD200 RAID-0(XP Pro)
150 GB Raptor(Games and Vista*hopefully*)
XFI-ExtremeMusic
2xBFG7800GTX256 SLI
A8n32 Deluxe Nforce X16
2405FPW digital 1920*1200


"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
>
> I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
> 80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
> on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
> selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
> press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
> meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
> drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
> setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
> from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
> possible solution for this?

Similar issue here. I have XPpro set up on my RAID-0 configuration but also
have a seperate 150GB Raptor which I use for progs and games. I partitioned
that in half, so I have a clean 75gb partition for the window Vista beta.
Now, my WinXP-Pro if 32 bit, and I am trying to install Vista Beta2 64 on the
clean partition I made. I don't think there should have been any issue.
Aside from the fact it was also giving me errors whe I downloaded the
ISO....But that is another issue.

Any ideas anyone>? I have done what other have suggested, as far as
disconnecting everything but mouse and keyboard. Still get the same system
volume error.
--
AMDFX57
2xWD200 RAID-0(XP Pro)
150 GB Raptor(Games and Vista*hopefully*)
XFI-ExtremeMusic
2xBFG7800GTX256 SLI
A8n32 Deluxe Nforce X16
2405FPW digital 1920*1200


"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
>
> I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
> 80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
> on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
> selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
> press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
> meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
> drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
> setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
> from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
> possible solution for this?

Similar issue here. I have XPpro set up on my RAID-0 configuration but also
have a seperate 150GB Raptor which I use for progs and games. I partitioned
that in half, so I have a clean 75gb partition for the window Vista beta.
Now, my WinXP-Pro if 32 bit, and I am trying to install Vista Beta2 64 on the
clean partition I made. I don't think there should have been any issue.
Aside from the fact it was also giving me errors whe I downloaded the
ISO....But that is another issue.

Any ideas anyone>? I have done what other have suggested, as far as
disconnecting everything but mouse and keyboard. Still get the same system
volume error.
--
AMDFX57
2xWD200 RAID-0(XP Pro)
150 GB Raptor(Games and Vista*hopefully*)
XFI-ExtremeMusic
2xBFG7800GTX256 SLI
A8n32 Deluxe Nforce X16
2405FPW digital 1920*1200


"Osho" wrote:

> I am having similar issues. I am getting the same error:
>
> Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for
> installation.
>
> I have a 100GB Drive that I have partitioned using Partition Commander,
> which is correctly recognized by the installer:
>
> Disk 0 Partition 1 10.0GB 1.8GB Primary
> Disk 0 Partition 2 10.0GB 0.0MB Primary
> Disk 0 Partition 3 15.0GB 14.9GB Primary
> Disk 0 Partition 4 2.0GB 0.0MB Logical
> Disk 0 Partition 5 DATA 56.4GB 46.8GB Logical
>
> Disk 0 Partition 1 is NTFS on which I already have Windows XP Pro installed.
> Disk 0 Partition 2 is Linux partition on which I have a Linux OS installed.
> Disk 0 Partition 3 is a NTFS 15GB partition on which I want to install Vista
> Beta2.
> Disk 0 Partition 4 is Linux Swap partition
> Disk 0 Partition 5 is a FAT-32 partition for data common to all OSes.
>
> I formatted the Disk 0 Partition 3 with Vista Installer. I can see that that
> partition is selected automatically by Vista Installer and the Next button is
> highlighted. When I click on Next button I get the
>
> Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for
> installation.
>
> Osho
>

I finally ripped my computer apart ( I have it up on the beams and taking it
down is a major hassle so this was a last resort) and disabled some of the
drives and I managed to get it installed. It wouldn't work with my WD 80GB
primary drive, so I swapped my old Maxtor 40GB backup drive and that worked.
If I want to run vista, I F11 while booting and choose the backup drive or I
can set it as the default drive in bios.

"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
>
> I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
> 80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
> on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
> selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
> press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
> meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
> drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
> setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
> from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
> possible solution for this?

I finally ripped my computer apart ( I have it up on the beams and taking it
down is a major hassle so this was a last resort) and disabled some of the
drives and I managed to get it installed. It wouldn't work with my WD 80GB
primary drive, so I swapped my old Maxtor 40GB backup drive and that worked.
If I want to run vista, I press F11 while booting and choose the backup
drive or I can set it as the default drive in bios.


"Grope For Luna" <GropeForLuna.RemoveThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0C8AD293-E028-4C0A-B8A6-886538826263@microsoft.com...
> "andy" wrote:
>> Can you describe the system volume? (That would be the active primary
>> partition.)
>
> WD 80GB IDE Drive Primary Master
>
> C: 15GB NTFS 16kb clusters (Active primary partition with x64) 9GB free
> D: 60GB NTFS 16kb clusters (Primary partition for programs) 30GB free
>

I have been having the same problem with one MAJOR difference. I ran through
the install perfectly. Vista was installing the files and then decompressing
them. It takes time so I walked away from the screen. When I came back it
was at the same screen as the first install. Keyboard, US, etc. It had
rebooted at one point and then went stupid. This is an older 60 gig drive
that I formatted with the Vista installer. I'm thinking it's drive related
but Bios looked ok and I'm trying a few things. I can't recall how I have
the drive setup. IDE master, primary/secondary. I was just throwing things
together. Will check back when I have an answer.

"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
>
> I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
> 80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
> on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
> selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
> press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
> meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
> drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
> setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
> from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
> possible solution for this?

Check your Bios and make sure your drive shows up as primary. And/or check
your jumpers on your drive. Those running the raid....??? Driver issue?

"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
>
> I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
> 80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
> on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
> selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
> press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
> meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
> drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
> setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
> from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
> possible solution for this?

Check your Bios and make sure your drive shows up as primary. And/or check
your jumpers on your drive. Those running the raid....??? Driver issue?


"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
>
> I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
> 80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
> on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
> selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
> press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
> meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
> drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
> setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
> from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
> possible solution for this?

I may have found a solution. I've been having a lot of trouble getting Vista
installed myself. I tried numerous attempts to bypass the error ("Windows is
unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation.")
with no success. However, after almost destroying my computer keyboard out of
rage, I stumbled upon a solution, maybe out of dumb luck. Vista finally
installed. I'll list exactly what I did to make it install, but because I was
so frustrated at the time of the solution, and I'm too afraid to try to
reproduce this process, I can't guarantee this will solve everyone's problem.

I booted off of the installation DVD, my monitor displayed a grey loading
bar and a text label: “Windows is loading files…� While this bar was being
shown I held down F8, ignoring the system clicking sounds. When the bar
reached 100% completion, with F8 still held down, I was prompted with a menu
much like the extended boot menu of a windows OS (included safe mode and such
options). I let go of F8 and chose the option near the bottom labeled
"Debugging Mode." From there I continued the installation as normal, selected
the partition I wanted, clicked next, and, like magic, it worked.

If this is a solution, my guess is that the debug kernel disables some
safety flag on this part of the instillation. So, if this works for you, tell
me. If it doesn’t, I may try to retrace my steps to figure out if I did
anything in addition to this to force Vista to install.

Hope this helps, Jesse.

I may have found a solution. I've been having a lot of trouble getting Vista
installed myself. I tried numerous attempts to bypass the error ("Windows is
unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation.")
with no success. However, after almost destroying my computer keyboard out of
rage, I stumbled upon a solution, maybe out of dumb luck. Vista finally
installed. I'll list exactly what I did to make it install, but because I was
so frustrated at the time of the solution, and I'm too afraid to try to
reproduce this process, I can't guarantee this will solve everyone's problem.

I booted off of the installation DVD, my monitor displayed a grey loading
bar and a text label: “Windows is loading files…� While this bar was being
shown I held down F8, ignoring the system clicking sounds. When the bar
reached 100% completion, with F8 still held down, I was prompted with a menu
much like the extended boot menu of a windows OS (included safe mode and such
options). I let go of F8 and chose the option near the bottom labeled
"Debugging Mode." From there I continued the installation as normal, selected
the partition I wanted, clicked next, and, like magic, it worked.

If this is a solution, my guess is that the debug kernel disables some
safety flag on this part of the instillation. So, if this works for you, tell
me. If it doesn’t, I may try to retrace my steps to figure out if I did
anything in addition to this to force Vista to install.

Hope this helps, Jesse.

"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> I've installed 4 releases of Vista but this is the first time I've had such a
> problem. I have an Athlon 64 3700 on a ASRock 939Dual although previous
> releases were installed on an Nforce2 board with Athlon 2500.
>
> I have an ~80GB D: partition with 50GB available (16kb clusters), a full
> 80GB second drive with ~20GB available (16kb clusters)and the first partition
> on a third drive (27GB - 4kb clusters) and it won't install on either. When
> selecting a volume for installation, the Next button is enabled but when I
> press it, it gives me the "Windows is unable to find a system volume that
> meets it's criteria for installation" message. I've tried it with a virtual
> drive in x64 and by booting with the dvd. I formatted the 27GB partition with
> setup but it also failed. I tried unplugging my USB DVD-RW and installing
> from the virtual image to no avail. Anyone else have this problem or a
> possible solution for this?