Amabok, I had the EXACT same problem as you. It was installing and I went
to take a quick shower right after it started the install, I came back and it
was rebooting, but then said the previous reboot had failed and it wanted to
know how it wanted me to continue. No matter what option I chose it wouldnt
work. Eventually I had to install on a different partition and reformat the
other partitions (including the first partition my winXP was on originally).
Now, my vista is working fine, but it won't let me activate my version,
because I bought the upgrade and my key is for the upgrade but I had to
install a clean copy on a different partition because the setup ruined the
partition my winxp was on!
Does anyone know how to activate my winVISTA somehow or what might have
happened??!?!

"Amabok" wrote:

> John, boot normally did not work either.
> Another question...During my first installation attemp, I entered my product
> key and selected automatic activation. Because the installation did not
> finish (failed during first reboot after installation process were done) will
> my copy be activated or does it only activate it after you successfully login
> to vista the first time? I would like to try the "clean install" option but
> not sure if my copy was activated or not.
> Thanks
>
> "Top" wrote:
>
> > Here's something you might want to read,
> > http://www.instantvista.com/windows-vista-upgrade.html
> > as with everything YMMV
> >
> > Ed
> >
> >
> > =?Utf-8?B?QW1hYm9r?= <Amabok@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
> > in news:E01B29D2-60BE-42D7-B1BD-967139227C8E@microsoft.com:
> >
> > > Will give that a try, thanks John
> > >
> > >"John" wrote:
> > >
> > >> I had the same options when installing ultimate but choose
> > >> to "start windows normally". I've had no problem. Why don't
> > >> you try to reboot and just boot normally?
> > >>
> > >> best of luck (all will go fine I trust)
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> "Amabok" <Amabok@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
> > >> message
> > >> newsFCDF4F2-57A1-4A2E-A55E-FC8F90724522@microsoft.com...
> > >> > I've attemp to upgrade from XP Home edition to Vista Home
> > >> > premium. Before upgrade I ran the upgrade advisor check
> > >> > it indicated my pc to be ok and that
> > >> > no additional problems with programs, etc. It even
> > >> > indicated that my current
> > >> > graphics card as ok-no action required but during the
> > >> > upgrade it indicated that my display driver might have
> > >> > some compatibillity issues...
> > >> >
> > >> > The whole installation went fine and during the system's
> > >> > first logon attemp
> > >> > to vista, the system rebooted and gave me the option of
> > >> > starting win normally or in safe mode which I tried with
> > >> > no luck. Then I had to boot from
> > >> > disk and one of the options was to run repair program
> > >> > which I did and the repairing has been goin on for more
> > >> > than 12hrs but still no change has occured. Please help.
> > >> >
> > >> > Thanks
> > >> >
> > >>
> > >
> >
> >