Windows Vista Ultimate (x32) freezing

[TheCorpulent1]

I just formatted 2 of my 3 hard drives (the last one was left to back up my data) and installed Windows Vista Ultimate. I wanted XP but my college had this thing where I could get Vista for $12, so here I am. But now, when I start Vista up, I get maybe a minute of normal activity and then, boom, my entire screen freezes. I'm talking total freeze--I can't even move my mouse cursor. My computer's specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 3200+
1 GB 400DDR SDRAM
80 GB HDD (Vista's installed on this one) and 40 GB HDD on IDE
500 GB SATA 1.5 HDD (the one with all my pre-format data, still formatted for XP, but I thought both Vista and XP use NTFS so that shouldn't be a problem)
ATI Radeon X800 XT

Vista loads Safe Mode up just fine (which is how I'm typing this right now), but I can't get it to stay up long enough in normal mode to even install drivers or anything. I don't know if this is a common problem, but I hope someone cane help me. If only XP didn't cost so much, I could've avoided this stupid Vista nonsense.

 

[Kritish]

Vista hates you.

-Jag

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Vista hates everyone.

Even worse, I tried getting rid of Vista and installing XP again, but now it gets through the formatting phase, installs the XP setup files, and then restarts but gives me an "Error loading operating system" message after it tries to boot. Why can't any simple thing I try to do with my computer actually be simple?

 

[Kritish]

Vista hates everyone.

Even worse, I tried getting rid of Vista and installing XP again, but now it gets through the formatting phase, installs the XP setup files, and then restarts but gives me an "Error loading operating system" message after it tries to boot. Why can't any simple thing I try to do with my computer actually be simple?

You're pretty screwed, odds are you're going to have to go to geek squad.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Ha, no. I used my work computer and found that the "Error loading operating system" thing is actually pretty common with XP. I had just been lucky enough not to experience it before. I found a bunch of websites and techie blogs with the same fix, so I'm going to try that and see if it works. If not, I'll just keep looking at work tomorrow. Geek Squad will never get my money!

 

[Kritish]

Ha, no. I used my work computer and found that the "Error loading operating system" thing is actually pretty common with XP. I had just been lucky enough not to experience it before. I found a bunch of websites and techie blogs with the same fix, so I'm going to try that and see if it works. If not, I'll just keep looking at work tomorrow. Geek Squad will never get my money!

The difference is if they **** your computer up you get a refund.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, but if they don't, I have to pay like $100 just for them to open my computer and look inside it or press a couple keys. They're a huge rip-off.