unable install supported system

My system is an emachines amd64 laptop, I am attempting to install the 32bit version of vista on it. I have 3 partitions.
1. hfs+ because I use gnu darwin 21.9gb 2. windows xp partition 1.4gb 3. potential vista partition 25gb freshly formated 4. 8.2gb unallocated
I want to install on teh third partition, but it is not working for some reason.
Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installtion, is the error I recieve. Any suggestions?
Thanks, John

I have a similar setup (Nforce 4 msi board) and have struggled for a few days with the same problem.
What i did was this: - Boot from Vista DVD - Choose System RESTORE (instead of normal setup) - After a while you get to another menu and I chose Command Prompt - I used the DISKPART utlity to delete and create the partition i wanted to install vista to. ( If you dont know what you are doing diskpart can destroy your xp partition so be careful) dikskpart instructions: english: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/diskpart.mspx?mfr=true spanish: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/es/library/ServerHelp/ca099518-dde5-4eac-a1f1-38eff6e3e509.mspx?mfr=true - Once that was done i restarted setup from either x:\setup or look for the dvd drive letter and start setup from there. - I didnt bothered to format it from the command prompt but rather left it to do inside setup. I dont think that makes any difference. Setup completed succesfully !!