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

My client set partition, that he want install Vista on, as active partition.
It solve his probblem.

Frustrating, I know. Well, tonight I'll go see if anything else I did helped
get it installed. Something did it for me, and it wasn't anything I did to my
hardware, so I'll look into it.


"Tommmmmm" wrote:

> No it does not work. I tried your solution and various others I thought of
> myself, but still
>
> I can't install the windows vista !!!
>
> anyone DO SMTH !!!!
>
> "thisRhythm" wrote:
>
> > 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?

Frustrating, I know. Well, tonight I'll go see if anything else I did helped
get it installed. Something did it for me, and it wasn't anything I did to my
hardware, so I'll look into it.

"Tommmmmm" wrote:

> No it does not work. I tried your solution and various others I thought of
> myself, but still
>
> I can't install the windows vista !!!
>
> anyone DO SMTH !!!!
>
> "thisRhythm" wrote:
>
> > 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?

i'm also having the same problem...with a minor complication. my two hard
drives are partitioned thus:

disk 0 part 1 9.6GB 9.5GB primary
disk 1 part 1 996.0 MB 0.0MB primary
disk1 part 2 73.6GB 0.0MB primary

where disk0 is the drive i want to put vista on, disk1 part1 is a Linux swap
partition, and disk1 part2 carries a Linux OS. disk0 part1 has been
formatted by the vista installer; i'm not touching disk1, as it has all my
important data.
i tried stripping it down to just disk0, completely disconnecting disk1, but
then i get no boot; it won't even boot to the dvd, so i can't install it
without having disk1 attached and acting as master.
any ideas?

-F

"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> 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?

same problem, minor complication.

two drives;

disk0part1 9.6GB primary
disk1part1 966MB primary
disk1part2 73.6GB primary

disk0part1 is desired location for vista, disk1part1 is Linux swap,
disk1part2 is Linux OS. complication: disk1 will boot w/out disk0, but disk0
will not boot w/out disk1 (which eliminates any possibilities of stripping
down to just disk0).

Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, hard drives as above.

any ideas?

-F

same problem, minor complication.

two drives;

disk0part1 9.6GB primary
disk1part1 966MB primary
disk1part2 73.6GB primary

disk0part1 is desired location for vista, disk1part1 is Linux swap,
disk1part2 is Linux OS. complication: disk1 will boot w/out disk0, but disk0
will not boot w/out disk1 (which eliminates any possibilities of stripping
down to just disk0).

Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, hard drives as above.

any ideas?

-F

"Steve Z" wrote:

> 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
> >
>

guys, i guess i have found out the roots of the problem.

It's not anything todo with RAID ( as we can read on google ), because at
least I
have normal ATA harddisc without raid. And yet I have this problem.

At the beginning I have thought that my NTFS might be wrong (bad clasters
size/etc)
but even after formatting the partition WITH vista installation disc, the
problem was still THERE. So the NTFS partition is correct.

Everyone of us have already partitioned harddrive. I have too (Linux).
That's why it does not work. You say: what? why? how? The answer is simple:
because Vista is even more user friendly, so it thinks that it's users will
be dumb, so they don't have partitioned HD. Microsoft programmers didn't
expect that we - users would like to install Vista on partitioned HD.

Solution? Remove all partitions. Make one NTFS partition. Install.
As I said on the beginnning "this is a guess" - I won't remove my Gentoo,
because it's too troublesome and LONG to install it once more. Anyone pls try
this method and tell me if it works,

As for the end, I want to say one thing: You have an OS, you are
distributing it for developers, smart people - yet, you distribute stable
version. Yet you didn't make any test to check if it works. You are dumb then.

In place of "You" put an apropriate company's name.

"Flyer" wrote:

> same problem, minor complication.
>
> two drives;
>
> disk0part1 9.6GB primary
> disk1part1 966MB primary
> disk1part2 73.6GB primary
>
> disk0part1 is desired location for vista, disk1part1 is Linux swap,
> disk1part2 is Linux OS. complication: disk1 will boot w/out disk0, but disk0
> will not boot w/out disk1 (which eliminates any possibilities of stripping
> down to just disk0).
>
> Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, hard drives as above.
>
> any ideas?
>
> -F

Yes, well Microsoft is Microsoft, and their mindset is the ultimite
antithesis of the thought process of Linux users. However, even though I
would love to Microsoft bash right now, I myself got Vista installed on my
forth primary partition with a Linux root, Linux swap and Linux boot on my
third, second, and first consecutively. I'm tied up with getting Vista to
like my wireless network at the moment, but I'll continue to look into why
the install worked for me after I had so much trouble before.

"Tommmmmm" wrote:

> guys, i guess i have found out the roots of the problem.
>
> It's not anything todo with RAID ( as we can read on google ), because at
> least I
> have normal ATA harddisc without raid. And yet I have this problem.
>
> At the beginning I have thought that my NTFS might be wrong (bad clasters
> size/etc)
> but even after formatting the partition WITH vista installation disc, the
> problem was still THERE. So the NTFS partition is correct.
>
> Everyone of us have already partitioned harddrive. I have too (Linux).
> That's why it does not work. You say: what? why? how? The answer is simple:
> because Vista is even more user friendly, so it thinks that it's users will
> be dumb, so they don't have partitioned HD. Microsoft programmers didn't
> expect that we - users would like to install Vista on partitioned HD.
>
> Solution? Remove all partitions. Make one NTFS partition. Install.
> As I said on the beginnning "this is a guess" - I won't remove my Gentoo,
> because it's too troublesome and LONG to install it once more. Anyone pls try
> this method and tell me if it works,
>
> As for the end, I want to say one thing: You have an OS, you are
> distributing it for developers, smart people - yet, you distribute stable
> version. Yet you didn't make any test to check if it works. You are dumb then.
>
> In place of "You" put an apropriate company's name.
>
> "Flyer" wrote:
>
> > same problem, minor complication.
> >
> > two drives;
> >
> > disk0part1 9.6GB primary
> > disk1part1 966MB primary
> > disk1part2 73.6GB primary
> >
> > disk0part1 is desired location for vista, disk1part1 is Linux swap,
> > disk1part2 is Linux OS. complication: disk1 will boot w/out disk0, but disk0
> > will not boot w/out disk1 (which eliminates any possibilities of stripping
> > down to just disk0).
> >
> > Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, hard drives as above.
> >
> > any ideas?
> >
> > -F

anyone know any other source of help?

i was googling 10 hours but no result

disk0part1 9.6GB primary - How is this formatted? And for Vista a minimum
partition of 15Gigs is required.


--
Jane, not plain 64bit enabled
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation
"Flyer" <Flyer DeleteThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:80997676-7832-461D-8C02-7641164B9071@microsoft.com...
> same problem, minor complication.
>
> two drives;
>
> disk0part1 9.6GB primary
> disk1part1 966MB primary
> disk1part2 73.6GB primary
>
> disk0part1 is desired location for vista, disk1part1 is Linux swap,
> disk1part2 is Linux OS. complication: disk1 will boot w/out disk0, but
> disk0
> will not boot w/out disk1 (which eliminates any possibilities of stripping
> down to just disk0).
>
> Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, hard drives as above.
>
> any ideas?
>
> -F

same problem, minor complication.

two drives;

disk0part1 9.6GB primary
disk1part1 966MB primary
disk1part2 73.6GB primary

disk0part1 is desired location for vista, disk1part1 is Linux swap,
disk1part2 is Linux OS. complication: disk1 will boot w/out disk0, but disk0
will not boot w/out disk1 (which eliminates any possibilities of stripping
down to just disk0).

Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, hard drives as above.

any ideas?

-F

same problem, minor complication.

two drives;

disk0part1 9.6GB primary
disk1part1 966MB primary
disk1part2 73.6GB primary

disk0part1 is desired location for vista, disk1part1 is Linux swap,
disk1part2 is Linux OS. complication: disk1 will boot w/out disk0, but disk0
will not boot (even to dvd) w/out disk1 (which eliminates any possibilities
of stripping down to just disk0).

Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, hard drives as above.

any ideas?

-F

the Drive is too Small need 40gigs of room to install Vista
"Flyer" <Flyer.DeleteThis@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9D474550-3423-438C-82F7-0B67428F556E@microsoft.com...
> same problem, minor complication.
>
> two drives;
>
> disk0part1 9.6GB primary
> disk1part1 966MB primary
> disk1part2 73.6GB primary
>
> disk0part1 is desired location for vista, disk1part1 is Linux swap,
> disk1part2 is Linux OS. complication: disk1 will boot w/out disk0, but
> disk0
> will not boot (even to dvd) w/out disk1 (which eliminates any
> possibilities
> of stripping down to just disk0).
>
> Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, hard drives as above.
>
> any ideas?
>
> -F

I have a similar setup (Nforce 4 msi board) and have struggled for a few
days with the same problem.

What i did was this:
- Boot from Vista CD
- Choose System RESTORE (instead of normal setup)
- After a while you get to another menu and I chose Command Prompt
- I used the DISKPART utlity to delete and create the partition i wanted to
install vista to. ( If you dont know what you are doing diskpart can destroy
your xp partition so be careful)
dikskpart instructions:
english:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddo...en-us/d
spanish:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/es/libr.../Server
- Once that was done i restarted setup from either x:\setup or look for the
dvd drive letter and start setup from there.
- I didnt bothered to format it from the command prompt but rather left it
to do inside setup. I dont think that makes any difference. Setup completed
succesfully !!

No such luck for me either. I guess you got lucky

"thisRhythm" wrote:

> 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?

Any real fix for this? I have the same problen on a fresh 110gig HD and it
tells me it doesnt fir the criteria.. HELP!!!!

"Grope For Luna" wrote:

> "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
>

SOLUTION

If you have multiple hard drives installed and even one of them is not
supported by drivers either on the Windows Vista disc or on disks you have
provided Setup, then you will receive the error message about not finding a
compatible system volume.

I have a SATA RAID that Windows Vista will not recognize and an IDE drive
that Vista can actually see. I just went into BIOS and disabled my RAID and I
no longer receive the error message and I installed Vista on my IDE drive.

Now I'm having trouble finding Vista-compatible RAID drivers, but that's a
different story.