Vista Clean Install Problems (not from the recovery media) (G1S related but other expertise welcome)

Posted this in the owners lounge thread - thought I'd try here as well to get an assortment of expertise/advice

Once again - since I don't think anyone answered me last time -

Is anyone having difficulty doing a clean install of Vista x86 (haven't tried x64 yet - maybe that'd work... though I doubt it) NOT using the recovery media?

I've hit a snag where the install freezes at the completing installation screen with the dots going from 1 to 3/4 (can't remember) - I've left it sitting there for 4-5 hours and... nothing. There seems to be HDD activity (according to the LED) and the mouse will freeze for about 1/2 second every 5-6 seconds.

Apparently it's a known problem with Vista installing to some SATA / SATA II drives. The only known workaround seems to be to install to an IDE HDD, then ghost the system to the SATA drive (kind of difficult in a laptop). Tried disabling almost everything in the BIOS, unplugging everything from USB etc.

How do the ASUS recovery media get around this? The ASUS recovery takes a long time (couple of hours to unpack/install all its drivers/utilities), but at least it works. Do they use some sort of ghosting from the DVD?

Any help/suggestions?

Cheers

 

Yea, to make those disks they have a master printed with an install on it, then compressed and coded. That is then turned into a press and they press the image onto the disk.

 

I've installed x64 without any difficulty without the recovery disc, as long as you have the drivers.

I am also curious about the ghosting.

 

Bigs,

Have you solved you problem? I have the same but still cant figure out a solution.

Thank you!