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computekllc

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Vista Hangs on crcdisk.sys on 2 diff. laptops, won't boot all the way

Today i reloaded two different laptops one is a Dell Inspiron 1440, and the other is a Dell Inspiron 1545.  Both of them are Vista home Prem. 32bit.  I used the Dell Vista Home Prem. CD's on both of them because the Prod. Key sticker on the bottom is for Vista Home Prem.   They both go through the loading process just fine and when its done, it reboots as normal but then when it gets to the windows loading screen it just sits there and won't go past it.  A few times of restarting has gotten them to a black screen with a pointer but thats it.  Even Ctrl+Alt+Delete won't do anything.  And when I try to start both of them in safe mode they get stuck on the Driver/crcdisk.sys and won't go any further no matter how long I leave them there. any help would be greatly appreciated.
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DatSure

This can usually be related to BIOS and disk corruption issues.  I would do the following:

1. Go into BIOS and reset to Optimal or Defaults.
2. Download a copy of the Ultimate Boot Disk For Windows and boot from that.
3. Do a CHKDSK /R on the C: drive.

Try to boot normally.  If that doesn't help then I would do a fresh install again and make sure you have the latest HDD drives & BIOS updates on your machine to prevent the problem.

Good luck.
That one is tricky: crcdisk.sys is the last file on the safe boot list and therefore it may get stuck displaying its' name.
Try checking HDDs with chkdsk from the installation disc. Also check memory with memtest.
ALSO: sticker located on the bottom part may not be compatible with OEM disc (that is if it's called OEMAct). In that case you'd have to use transfer tool:
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2009/08/13/backup-and-restore-vista-oem-activation-license/
Avatar of joinaunion
Have you tried the recovery partition provided by Dell or did you completley format hdd's?
Go here goto step 3.
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&docid=DC47E7957E35BBC0E030A68F27280D16&l=en&s=dhs 
You can also run Diagnostics when Dell logo appears press F12(quickly) then select diagnostics.
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Pagefright
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Are you using a burnt CD of Vista ? IF so  try a different CD,  it is odd that both laptops doing the same thing.

All so I would write zeros to the hard drives and then put on the os again.
Pagefright: has a point there.
i had a dell that would not work until i changed the ahci setting to something different in the bios and then it allowed me to reload the system After reinstalling all the drivers i changed it back and all was well.
have you tried copying a crcdisk.sys file from a working Vista machine?
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I'm trying a few of your suggestions and since both laptops are doing the same thing i'll be able to try 2 at once! I'll let you know when i find something
I went into the Bios and in the SATA Operation i changed the AHCI to ATA and reloaded both LT's again and it worked! Thanks ALOT!