Windows Vista Just Crashes and will not boot

[Paul Adams]

ok, so it's clear there is a driver problem then but how can I get this to work - or is it a no-go area? All I wanted is to try this Vista - I guess this discussion should now become "how do I get rid of Vista" !!

Boot from XP installation media, go to the Recovery Console and do "fixmbr" and "fixboot" commands.
When you said "latest" Vista build, was that 5456 or 5384?
Lots of people are having issues with 5456, typically RAID users though.

This the reason we recommend to only test Vista on a non-essential machine, or VM

[Pazza]

ok, daft question time - how do I get into the recovery console? I tried the different options on the WinXP boot disk & Win Vista boot disk but only get the option to go into command prompt and then the fixmbr / fixboot commands can't be used. Sorry, but you know the saying - "Can't see the wood for the trees"

[Paul Adams]

This can probably explain better than I can:
KB314058

[Pazza]

I found another article which explains exactly how to get the recovery console and it's quite easy really:-

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654/

Have removed Vista now on my second partition

Thanks everyone for your help.