When you try to install Windows Vista, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:

• The hard disk on which you want to install Windows Vista is not listed.
• You cannot select a hard disk partition on which to install Windows Vista.
• You cannot format a hard disk partition or partitions.
• You cannot set the correct size for a hard disk partition.
• You receive the following error message:
  

  Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation

After you try to complete a full format of a hard disk or a removable media in Windows Vista, the full format is not completed. When you try to access the hard disk or the removable media, neither can be accessed. The hard disk or the removable media is a RAW volume.

Note: A RAW volume is a volume that has never been formatted and does not contain a file system. Examples of file systems are FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. Typically, programs that do not require a file system write to a RAW volume. These programs perform direct I/O operations to the RAW volume.

You open the properties dialog box for an audio device in the Sound control panel on a Windows Vista-based computer. You may then find that duplicate entries are listed in the Default Format list on the Advanced tab of the properties dialog box. Also, when you select one of the entries, and then click Test, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:

Failed to play test tone

Note: You may receive a different error message, depending on your hardware.

After this problem occurs, you may be unable to use other programs that play audio. For example, programs such as Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center do not play sounds correctly.

This problem may occur after you change the entry in the Default Format list for the device. To open the Default Format list for the device, follow these steps:

1. Click Start Start button , type mmsys.cpl in the Start Search box, and then click mmsys.cpl in the Programs list.
2. Click an audio device that is listed, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then note the items that are listed in the Default Format list.

After you format and then eject a recordable DVD-R Dual Layer disc in Windows Vista, you cannot record more data to the disc.

After you format a disc by using the Windows Vista Live File System, the available space on the disc is less than the capacity of the disc. For example, after you format a 700 megabyte (MB)-disc, less than 700 MB is available for use on the disc.

When you insert a blank unformatted DVD-RAM disc into a supported DVD-RAM drive on a Windows Vista-based computer, you are not prompted to format the disc. You cannot format the unformatted DVD-RAM disc in Windows Vista.