some basic questions for a newbie

[coleco123]

Hey everyone,
I have downloaded this program tonight and have been working with it for hours but I am not getting anywhere. I scoured these forums for a solution but no luck. I am trying to add Vista onto a Media Center XP system. The program looks like it is working but when I hit the commit button, it wants to immediately reboot without the program doing its thing in the background. In other words it doesnt complete the operation and then ask to reboot, it just wants to reboot immediately. If I cancel then obviously the program stops. I f I hit reboot, the comp reboots and no changes have been made. Now I put the program on a cd and booted it in full version, but it said no hard drives found. ( I have a SATA drive if that matters). I tried in safe mode and it detects a C drive with like 7 GB on it ( my only drive is J drive 320 GB). So neither of the booted programs worked. I have the latest version 2160 so not sure what to upgrade. Not sure what else is relevant. Windows XP media center OS, 320 GB HD, Intel 6600 core duo cpu, zone alarm security, honestly I am not sure if that information is needed.

Any ideas of what to do, or if this program is not going to work for me??

Thanks a lot.

P.S. Not sure if this helps but there is a thread from TweakerXP on August 8 2007 and he explains EXACTLY what I am experiencing. It is entitled Disk Management does nothing (something like that) There is some comment about chipsets not being supported?? from someone but that is it, the thread is ended.

[MudCrab]

In what mode is the 320GB SATA drive running (per BIOS setting)?

Some computers have BIOS settings for SATA to run the drives in a Compatible mode or in IDE mode. Either of those modes may let the drive be seen properly by the Safe Mode version of DD. If this works for you, just change it back to the previous setting before booting back into Windows.

Don't worry if the drive letters are different when you boot into either the Full or Safe Mode versions of DD. Make sure your partitions are labeled with meaningful names like "Vista" or "MCXP", for example. That way you can tell which is which.

-----

If you don't have a current image backup, it's recommended that you create one (or at least have a current copy of all your important files) before you make any partition changes just in case something goes wrong.

-----

You may also want to consider creating a BartPE (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=162424) or VistaPE (http://www.mechrest.com/plugins/BartPEGuide/VistaPEGuide.htm) boot CD. This will allow you to run DD in either the PE version of XP or Vista along with all their drivers and avoid the Linux-based and DOS-based versions of DD.

[coleco123]

well again somewhat of a newbie. going into the BIOS I see that under a SATA drive tab, IDE is listed. Other options would be automatic it looks like

As far as using the disc at boot up and safe mode, it says C drive detected but the drive size is almost nothing. (7 GB versus 320) so I am not sure what I could do there. My drive is J.

I may try calling tech support today, and if no help ask for a refund. I just don't want to invest the rest of the weekend into figuring this out. If it is easy as SATA drive hook ups dont work, or Media Center 2005 editions dont work, etc. I wish I could find that out sooner rather than later.

Thanks for you help. I appreciate it.