"Windows could not determine if this computer contains a valid system"

[Benjamin]

Hello, i bought windows vista 32bit, and treid to install it, all went fine untill selecting the hard drive. When i selelcted it, partitioned it, clicked next, it brought up a page saying that "Windows could not determine if this computer contains a valid system volume". What did I do wrong, can anyone explain me? could some one help me please? Thank you

[Expertz]

I've been encountering this error on and off for the past year since Vista was release-to-manufacturer (RTM) late last year.

Read on and find out how you can solve this problem!

This problem has got something to do with the USB key. So, the below actions that I've tried works may work for you too:-
- In the BIOS, change the boot sequence of your USB key to after your ODD and hard drive OR
- In the BIOS, disable 'boot from USB device' option

You can change everything back to the original order in the BIOS after you're done with the installation, no harm done.

Conclusion, Microsoft just doesn't see the need to put in a more detail message, as usual, but a more general one. And us, the developers need to squeeze our brain to find out what's the meaning behind that message.

[nitesh mehta]

It turns out that Windows reads information about the boot sequence from the BIOS of the motherboard. It looks at this information to understand what will happen when the system boots for the first time. If you have a USB drive connected to the system and it is listed in the boot config as a bootable device - you will probably see this same error.

To get past it, simply re-configure your BIOS Boot options to NOT include the USB drive as a bootable device and you should be good to go. You can also boot your system without a USB drive installed - not an option for me since I need to install 3rd party raid drivers.