Viv,

Below is the error file. Iv'e done some digging and have tried to install framework 4.0 beta first and then the rest

I've got sqlserver 2008 developer installed - so I skip sql2008 express

I may try to uninstall everything that relates to vs2008 (installed by sqlserver) and then have another go at it

Oh - luckily I take an image backup every time

[12/13/09,16:38:39] Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium Beta 2 - ENU: [2] CRootComponent::Install(): Cannot install; setup files failed verification.
[12/13/09,16:38:41] setup.exe: [2] ISetupComponent::Pre/Post/Install() failed in ISetupManager::InternalInstallManager() with HRESULT -2147023284.
[12/13/09,16:38:44] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium Beta 2 - ENU is not installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:44] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Web Deployment Tool (x86) was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:44] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2 - Visual Studio 2010 Tools was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:45] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2 was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:45] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Silverlight was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:45] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Silverlight 3 SDK was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:45] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime Beta 2 (x86) was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:46] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Office Development Tools for Visual Studio 2010 (x86) was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:46] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Dotfuscator Software Services - Community Edition was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:46] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Crystal Reports templates for Visual Studio 2010 was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:46] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP2 Beta ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:47] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Tools for SQL Server Compact ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:47] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 (x86) ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:47] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Sync Services for ADO.NET v2.0 (x86) ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:47] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Sync Framework Services v1.0 (x86) ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:48] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Sync Framework SDK v1.0 (x86) ENU was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:48] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Performance Collection Tools (x86) was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:48] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft SQL Publishing Wizard 1.4 was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:48] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates SQL Server System CLR Types was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:49] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Objects was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:49] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 ADO.NET Entity Framework Tools was not attempted to be installed.
[12/13/09,16:38:50] VS70pgui: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft Help 3.0 Beta 2 was not attempted to be installed.

>Any indication that it might be a case of '6th time lucky' (g) ?
>Seriously, what problems did you get. I suceeeded first time without incident (on a machine with 2005 & 2008 already installed)
>Best,
>Viv