Clean install of Vista on new hard drive

Hi,

My hard drive bit the dust and I installed a new one. How do I assign a drive letter to the new drive?
On the install it just says disc 0 partition 1. On the Vista where do you want to install Vista screen the 'new' drive option is not highlighted and I cannot select it, or choose how much space to give?
All help please....I am at a loss! Thanks.:cry

 

Follow the steps in this guide to install Vista to a new hard drive. If you have 2 or more hard drives in the PC, temporarily disconnect the drive(s) that you don't want to install Vista on, this will make things easier to figure out when it comes to formatting the drive. You should have a screen that looks like this after entering the product key, and after agreeing to the license agreement...


http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winvista/images/Image17.gif


You might want to click the "Drive Options (advanced)" button if you want to use custom partition sizes and whatnot. If the drive does not appear in the list, power down and double check the data and power connections; power up again and go into the BIOS and make sure the drive is recognized there. If it still is being 'seen' by Vista, try using a bootable utility to format the drive. You can download this type of tool from the hard drive manufacturer's web site for free, or check the Major Geeks Drive Utilities Section and you're bound to find some freeware to do the job. Personally, I use O&O Partition Manager for these things (it's a bootable PE-based CD) but it isn't free (link: http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/oopartitionmanager/index.html) and I'm not sure if they have a functional demo version or not....

 

Hi,

Thanks that guide is very good. Right now I am trying it again after entering my vista code.
It is getting to the last section of the install and then on the second restart I get a blue screen, or I am getting it just after the preparing to launch windows vista for the first time screen.
The repair tells me that it can't repair it but when I look at the notes for the error it states it is from an external source. Could it be my keyboard,mouse or tft?
Thanks again,I have downloaded a trial version of the oopartition manager software just in case!

 

Hi,

The error actually states a driver is stuck in an infinite loop? What can I do to resolve this and get past it so I can install the OS? Thanks! :cry