They are partitions on the physical disk

If this is still a problem as I expect it is, I have made some posts on http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...58344c/#page:2

Feel free to take a look, maybe something my help you out!

Good Luck

If Vista is unable to install due to freeze during/after process or once you have it installed there are random freezes for 20-30-indefinite seconds and/or of course the blue screen of death then your problem might be a hardware controller issue. Read on….

The following issues may occur on Windows Vista* with a supported Intel® RAID controller hub:
• Inability to install Windows Vista (in other words, system halts during installation)
• Performance degradation
• Timeout errors reported by iastor or iastor(v) in Microsoft Event Viewer*


Read This:

http://www.intel.com/support/chipset.../CS-025783.htm


Various desktop Serial ATA devices such as hard drives and CD/DVD drives have been reported that do not comply with the Serial ATA LPM device specification and display erratic behavior when LPM is enabled.
Because the setup change means that LPM is enabled by default for all Windows Vista platforms, using a device that does not completely follow the specification may result in one of the listed issues.
Fixes and workaround include downloading the latest matrix storage devices on intel site.

Get here:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...llName=Windows

If you’re having trouble installing vista you might need to change the port from 0 and/or 1 to higher ports like 4 or 5. (depending on how many hd you have)
And/or switch to IDE mode in Bios(this method has drawbacks since ide is more limited than sata)
If vista gives the 30 second freezes with a event id: 9 and source: iastor , or event: 508 0r 510 with source: performance in eventview then you need to download latest intel matrix driver specified above.
((you might have to roll back your sata drivers))

If the above problems does not apply to you or all else fails (this is what worked for me)
do the registry fix. See below.
Delete the iastor(v) Parameters registry key by using the following steps:

1. Go to Start -> Search.
2. Type in RegEdit and hit the Enter key.
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor(v).
4. Right-click on the Parameters key under iaStor(v) and select the Delete option.
You might have to delete both iastor and iastor(V) parameters as noted from some users.
Fixes and workarounds above was retrieved from:
http://www.flyingnerd.com/intel-raid...windows-vista/
yea….it was the harddrive drivers conflicting with the operating system basically.
At least it was for me…hopefully this helps.