Got bit by this one with a DELL Inspiron 1720.  Was trying to reinstall Vista from the supplied CD.  Kept hanging at the "completing installation" message after it rebooted from the install.  After powering down and rebooting, it would crash when it hit the crcdisk.sys (as seen by using safe boot).  The issue is that it needs a driver for the SATA AHCI controller.

On a DEL Inspiron 1720, to Fix:

1) Reboot system and press F12 to get to the boot menu (while the dell logo is one the screen, you have to be fast)

2) On the Boot Menu, select from CD/DVD (be sure to have you Vista installation DVD in the drive)

3) Press space bar at the "Press any key to boot from CD" prompt (if you do not do this step or miss it, it will try to boot Windows again.)

4) When the Vista window is open, click on the Install button ( ** be prepared, this will wipe all files from your hard drive **)

5) Select Custom Install

6) You should see multiple partitions on the screen, select the OS partition which should be the large one where you will install Vista (you can select to format the drive to completely clean it up if you desire)

7) Select LOAD DRIVERS button and it should prompt you for the drivers CD.

8) Put in the Drivers CD and select OK, it should find your STAT AHCI driver, select NEXT.

9) Back on the partion menu, be sure the partition is selected, put your Vista installation DVD back in and select NEXT

10) Continue on through the install, it should go all the way through to reboot and then open Vista - Done!