Well I broke down and bought the upgrade from XP Pro to Ultimate I didn't have any issues just one with a SB driver which I downloaded and the sound works. The problem I seem to be having one of my drives clanks every so often. I did the drive check with the western digital software data life tool (the long check) and they came back good. What could possibly be going on, I checked the abit site thinking it might be a voltage thing but the PS I have is way over what I need. Bios is working fine the updates for the AW8-MAX were nothing worth flashing it for just some more memory capatibility updates and voltage features for the 8000 series Nivida's. I don't know what else could there be a problem with voltages I am stationed in Korea but on a US base that uses 110v. I checked numerous forums and one person had the same problem and someone was saying it might by the prefetch within Vista itself, but I am not to familiar with the new prefetch vs the XP one. Part 2 of my question I might do a clean install to see if that clears it up but I have a G15 that is USB and anything on boot in dos I have no KB because it doesn't boot the USB ports. Any work around besides getting a PS/2 Keyboard.

AW8-Max
Pentium D - 3.2 Mhz
BFG 7800 GTX
2 GB Corsair XMS
2 -WD SATA Hard Drives 250/350g
Sony DL Burner - DRU series
Power Supply BFG 800 W
NZXT Nemesis Alum Case
Sound Blaster Audigy 2

A clunk from a HDD doesn't sound good, though I wonder if it's a power management thing - turning off the HDD after a certain period of inactivity. You can check the settings by going to Advanced Plan Settings in the Power Options section of the control panel.

I think you may have hit the nail on the head the setting under balanced which I think is the default under Vista was set to 20 mins to turn it off. That was about the time frame the drive would clank especially when I would play my MMO it would do it during certain load screens. I will give this a shot it also caused problems when I was trying to back up some files that took about 1 hour to transfer to DVD so I made a couple DL coasters courtesy Microsoft LOL. All and all I like Vista, its just not for the average user. I will not be putting this on the wife's computer she will drive me nuts!