New PC doesn't boot after Vista Install

XP does not contain support for SATA drivers. You will need to go into the BIOS and set the SATA drive to "native IDE mode" or "emulated IDE mode" or something like that, each BIOS calls it something different. But mainly you need the controller to be in IDE mode if you don't have the drivers.

Vista does have support for SATA drivers included. You should not need anything for Vista, and you should be able to set your drive in any advanced SATA mode in your BIOS and it should work fine.

However, if you are able to install either OS, then that is not the problem. If you needed a driver, the install disk would not be able to find a drive to install to during the install process. You would get a message something like "Windows could not find a hard disk..........."

Hi jitpublisher, thanks for this.

OK you're right, also when I installed Vista, I reformatted the disk with Vista and created a new set of partitions. There should be nothing left of XP, so the Vista drivers should have worked.

So what else should I consider?

Thanks

Steve

Hi Guys,



Thanks for all your help.



It just fell into the too-hard category, I took it back to the shop. They couldn't fix it. They swapped it out for another identical one. They tested it, and it had the same problem so they gave me my money back. Four PCs in two weeks!



- Broken power supply
- Broken fan,
- two with this reinstall problem



In the end I bought a custom build from my local small PC shop.



Works like a dream!



Thanks for all your help.