In certain situations, drive virtualization software (software that lets you mount a disk image as if it were a physical drive, for example) will cause Windows Vista to reboot randomly. The effect is often reported to worsen over time and culminate in a Vista installation that enters a continuous restart cycle.

Often the user will see only a black screen before the restart. This is due to the automatic restart on STOP error that is set by default in both XP and Vista. To see the blue screen itself and the STOP error code follow these instructions:

• Open Vista's Start menu.
• Right click the 'Computer' item on the right side and select 'Properties'.
• In the left side of the window that appears, click 'Advanced System Settings'.
• Go to the 'Advanced' tab in the dialog that pops up and click 'Settings' under 'Startup and Recovery'.
• Uncheck the box marked 'Automatically restart'.

Or watch the attached video.

This will prevent rebooting before you get a chance to see the error screen. In the case of the error with VirtualCloneDrive there is usually only a blue screen and not even an error code present. In fact, even the Windows Events log is conspicuously empty until you reach the 'Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown' entry. In other cases this can provide you with valuable information on the source of the problem in the form of a rather long error code.

This has been reported to affect at least:

• Nero Burning ROM
• VirtualCloneDrive
• DeepBurner (Suspected, but has no virtual drive mode.)

The error is due to a bug in either Vista or the drivers these programs install.
The only known solution is to uninstall the software and it's drivers.