hardware problem preventing me from installing vista ?

[Sesshoumaru]

I tested many of the latests vista betas, pre rtm, rtm, and pirated copies of vista (that i never activated, or used cracks on sinsce i only tested for a couple of days and then went back to XP).

now my college gave me a license for windows vista buisness ( i couldnt get the dvd tho, but since i had an iso already i didnt care ).

if i am NOT mistaken, the only diferences from back then when vista worked and now, are the following:

1- i used to have my dell usb hub (from my display) not pluged, and now i do have it pluged.

2- i bought a new HD (seagate st332062as, a 320 gb, 16mb cache, sata2 hdd), previously i had a partition for XP, 1 for vista and 1 for data on the hitachi drive.

3- i used to have my sistem with wattercooling, oced to 250x10, now its back to stockaircooling, 200x11 (default speed).

4- i dont remeber if i had C&Q activated on the motherboard BIOS back then, i do now, could this be a problem ? in windows xp having C&Q on without software and drivers isntalled, means the same as not having it on on the motherboard, i dont know in vista.

my rig:

DFI nf4 ultra-d

amd a64 4200+ x2

2x1gb ocz ddr500 gold xtc

xfx 7600gt xXx

hitachi 160gb 8mb cache sata2 hdd

seagate 320gb 16mb cache sata 2 hdd

dvd r/wr

i have a windows xp installation on the hitachi hdd, and i dont want it to be a dualboot (when i bought the seagate, i had an XP installation on each drive, the hitachi one was, and is suposed to be now too, a backup os), so i unplug it when i install something on the seagate hdd.

Now the thing is, when i install vista (i tried with no key, with my buisness key, then i downloaded a cracked windows viste by some NOPE groupe, and some other noncracked ones, and i have similar problems with all of them, with my ethernet cable pluged or unpluged), after it finishes omst of the steps, and gets to the last one, one of this things happens:

a) it reebots to a black screen and never goes anywhere form there

b)it stay at that screen for a LONG time, and then it tells me that it couldnt set up the bootmng, and that i should reinstall

c) if i loaded nf4 sata drivers, i can either get one of the previous errors, or a blue screen (i tried with the ones on the nvidia webpage, some leaked 9.92, and today, a nue 10.something that apeared)

d) sometimes, with no drivers, it will install vista, the first loading is REALLY long tho, and after the first reboot (usually after updating windows in WU, either manually or the automatic update), it takes EVEN more time too load the logon screen, or it never does, and when it does, it hans duiring the logon proces :/

i dont know really what caused the incompatibility, and i would hate my new hdd to be the culprit

[Sesshoumaru]

i just tried with drivers loaded but no C&Q, and its a no go.

ill try tomorow with no dirvers and no C&Q.

if that fails, ill install XP on to this partition, and test vista on the other Hdd (the os partition for it is a 15 gb partition, a little too small for vista )

[Sesshoumaru]

MS has a driver in WU for my sata controler that was causing the problems post install.