Help Vista won't let me install my Vista ultimate 64bit OEM disk!

[Jables18OSxxx]

i scored a vista ultimate 64 bit disk off a friend last year.. i installed it a while ago and it made my laptop run alot better.. until i messed around and "accidentally" checked the Compress disk to save space option in C drive properties.. once i said okay it said estimated time remaining was 16 days i freaked and cancelled.. then when i rebooted it was saying bootmgr was compressed so i messed around and ended up copying a pasting a bootmgr.exe file off the OEM disk, it worked for a while untill the cd drive started playing up then all the file and folder permissions were saying i cant access my own folders.

anyway then i decided to wipe it all and start vista off fresh again, so i reinstalled using the vista ultimate OEM and all went well until i found out that windows just reinstalled itself ontop of the old windows, so that didnt help and even though there was the windows.old folder all of the other drivers and stuff were still in the root folder of c, so all the stuffed folders and settings still remained..

so i made a big mistake so i wanted to start off fresh and never ever compress C again.

i then tried to completly wipe the HDD without any luck i found a program called DBAN (Boot and Nuke) so it wiped the harddrive completely, which is good..

now ive tried to boot up my Vista ultimate OEM disk so i can install windows again and all it keeps saying is that there is no OS disk in the drive..
i have copied the OEM disk twice,
tried forcing the laptop to boot the cd by trying all the function keys F9 F10 etc.., and going into BIOS settings.

i have no luck, the OEM disk works and reads fine on a pc with xp i have but it wont load on my laptop at all.

i have been forced to load the original vista on to the laptop for now so it is at least functional, it is only 32 bit vista home premium.

i have also tried to install the OEM disk inside of windows but it keeps saying it is not a valid windows 32 application, which makes sense.

does anyone know how to force my OEM disk boot up so i can install vista ultimate again?

i also do not have an official vista installation disk or an xp disk either, i only have the stupid disks that are used for recovering back to factory condition.

i want to know if i can force the OEM disk to install by using some sort of command or something. i dont want to be told to just use a vista installation disk or to go into the BIOS and change the boot settings.

i have already tried those ways.

i am about to give in and pay microsoft the 20 bucks for a vista disk but i dont even know if doing that will help.

so if anyone who actually has computer experience can help it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[burn1337]

hhmm... That is a bit odd... If you have changed the bios to boot the cd then it should do so... And you have used the same disk as before correct? Does it even try to come up or does it just not do anything?
From what you are saying, it seems to me that either the disk is unreadable, or unbootable sometimes due to burning it in a wrong fashion (happened to me a few times). Sometimes due to the disk drive it's self ect. Could even be a bios problem for all that goes, though if you were able to install the 32bit I don't see it being that.

 

[Jables18OSxxx]

hhmm... That is a bit odd... If you have changed the bios to boot the cd then it should do so... And you have used the same disk as before correct? Does it even try to come up or does it just not do anything?
From what you are saying, it seems to me that either the disk is unreadable, or unbootable sometimes due to burning it in a wrong fashion (happened to me a few times). Sometimes due to the disk drive it's self ect. Could even be a bios problem for all that goes, though if you were able to install the 32bit I don't see it being that.

Thanks for the reply burn420! Finally a little help, i've posted this question on two forums so far and all people are saying is to do what i have said i have done, which is change the boot order and dumb suggestions like that.


Since ttrying a few more times i remembered i used the guys original copy, but yet again his was burnt too..
So how can you burn it wrong and how do you do it right?
When the computer turns on after the boot screen the screen goes black and all there is is a flashing text curser thing, and i know that means it's trying to boot and then i pressed enter repeatedly until the piezo speaker makes a loud pitch(must be saying to stop pressing anything), then this curser stays flashing like this for a few seconds then it goes to another black screen with some text but this is only displayed for less than a second so i couldn't really see it, i'm guessing that the text could be for using to boot, but the pc can't do it. Each time after that windows just starts up normally again.

I'm guessing i'm going to have to get another copy by downloading another oem copy, which is impossible with a dialup connection.

 

[burn1337]

As for burning it right or wrong... Well I have yet to figure out a distinguished answer for that. With the many articles I have read and what not even still... Though with burning it with linux you have to choose to burn using the image not containing the image in a file.. With Nero, I was never able to figure it out I tried doing data disks, tried doing boot disks, yet nothing wanted to work. I did however get one successful boot disk using windows media player, burning a data disk.. So as to an answer for your question, it is kind of like trial and error...
Though from what your saying, it does seem that it probably was not burned as a boot disk... I would try another method of burning your disk, and see if it will work then...
Though I am still curious if you have tried that original copy, if so did it do the same? Cause if you haven't then the method of which your using is probably not burning it so that it will run as a bootable disk...

 

[Jables18OSxxx]

i had a quick look around and it's something to do with burning sector to sector on the disk, must be when you do a normal burn it skips the deep sectors, so the boot sector.. There are programs that can scan all sectors and whatnot.

I wonder if you can burn it and make the disk back into a boot disk.

The disk i used to install vista ultimate 64 bit was the original disk off the guy, i then copied that disk so i had a copy, i must have done it wrong and now i'm pretty much screwed.

 

[burn1337]

You might be able to still use the copy that you have to make another copy using another program to make a bootable disk.. I would at least give it a try..

 

[Atomic Rooster]

It sounds like you may have copied the Vista Ultimate disc wrong. To keep it as original, a straight disc to disc copy is needed. Just copying the files off the disc wont make it bootable.

I'm not sure if you can make the disc you have bootable. MagicISO is a program that comes to mind that may help.

 

[burn1337]

Atomic - I have heard of MagicISO, but never tried it... How well is it?

 

[Atomic Rooster]

I really couldn't tell ya. I've never used the program myself, but I have heard good things about it on many different forums.

Now that I think about it, it sounds like he illegally installed a copy of Vista Ultimate and than attempted to make an illegal copy of the CD. I guess he's stuck using his installation of Vista Home 32bit.

 

[burn1337]

Not necessarily... I have legal copies of Windows XP SP2 that have been burned... The person whom gave them to me, used to work with Microsoft, until he decided to work for himself.
The only way Windows can truly be considered illegal is upon the key code... They don't so much mind as to how you got the software, so long as you have a legit key... (Or so the mentioned person told me)

Hmm... If you try it out before I do, would you mind sharing your experience?