BSoD after the Vista installer restarts.

I recently finished building my new computer (this is the first time I've completely built one myself), and am having trouble installing Vista (this is the first time I've used Vista). It is Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

I put the Vista CD in, press F1, wait for it to boot up the CD, wait a while (about 5 minutes) for the "Click here to install" screen to come, click the install button and wait a minute for the serial key window to come up, put in the serial key, wait a minute for the next screen to come up after I click next, and then go through a couple more windows before the install starts. It finishes installing after about 10-15 minutes and restarts my computer. After the restart, I press F1 and wait for it to boot the CD, it then comes up with a screen with a loading bar. After about 1 minute, a BSoD appears for a split second and my computer restarts.

I've reinstalled it many times, but the result is the same. Has anyone else encountered a BSoD at this point, or know the reason I would? I don't know that much about hardware, so it took a lot of reading instructions and looking things up before I finished putting this build together. But if it's installing the initial part fine, doesn't that mean that the hardware should be working right?

Would it be a good idea to put this computers hard drive into the computer (running Windows XP) to make sure the computer is working fine?


Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm sorry if this is the wrong section, but it seemed like the most appropriate one.

How would I let it do that? After it restarts, it just sits on first screen where you press F1. It doesn't do anything.

I set the priority to Hard Drive, CD/DVD, then Removable, it still will not move from the press F1 or DEL screen. If I press F1, it'll go to a screen saying Windows could not start normally and give you the options of starting it normally or going into safe mode. If I go into safe mode, it will start to load but end up giving me a message saying it cannot complete installation in safe mode (no BSoD). If I tell it to start normally, it will go to the windows screen with the loading bar at the bottom (the loading bar is moving normally), and then give the BSoD.

When I first start my computer, I see Floppy Disk(s) Failed (40). I *** this is because I currently lack 2 SATA cables and cannot hook up 2 of my 3 hard drives. I plan to buy them soon, but for now, I only have my CD/DVD drive and 1 Western Digital Raptor plugged in.

How could I make a partition incorrectly? I mean, the partition for my 1 connected hard drive is automatically there. The boot up screen says my 1 hard drive and my CD/DVD drive is connected. I completely unplugged ther other two hard drives, which only had power going to them and no connection to the motherboard, and still get "Floppy Disk(s) Fail (40)". Does anyone know if this actually means anything?

When I go to reinstall it, about 12 GB's of my hard drive has been used from the first install. So I assume that means my hard drive is connected correctly, since it is losing space.

Would there be any ill effects on my new build if I just put the hard drive from this computer into it?