switching vista for xp Installing and Upgrading Vista Discuss switching vista for xp in the Windows Vista forums; I have Vista on my laptop, but not only do I not like it I've managed to lock myself out of it. I have XP office that I'd ...

[P Stastny]

I have Vista on my laptop, but not only do I not like it I've managed to lock myself out of it. I have XP office that I'd like to put on there. Can I do so with Vista still on there? Or will installing XP remove or give me an option to remove Vista? Any help would be great! Thanks!

[crabby]

If you put the XP disk in and bott directly to it it will format the hard drive and install itself. Your only issue is that if you want any of the information on the computer it will be deleted unless you back it up.

There is no way to 'Rollback' to XP, so you cant install XP over Vista without formatting the drive.

crabby

[P Stastny]

I have everything of importance on my desktop comp 'cause I was never comfortable with Vista so I have no worries about losing anything on there. Once I boot up XP will Vista remain on there or will it automatically be deleted once XP is up and running?

And how would I "format the drive?" Does that mean I can't install XP w/o doing this formatting first?

Thanks for the help!

[crabby]

Well... as long as you are sure you don't need anything...

When you boot into the setup it will give you the option of formatting your hard drive. Formatting basically deletes all of Vista for you. You must do this so the the hard drive is clean before installing XP otherwise Vista will screw it up.

Just use this walkthrough: Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Windows XP Clean Install (Interactive Setup)

And start at this line: Step-by-Step: Clean installing Windows XP (Interactive Setup)

If you get stuck or have any issues then please post back

crabby

[P Stastny]

I have the disc in, but after selecting the boot option (an option to reformat hasn't been offered) all it does is go back to the sign in page so I'm not really getting anywhere it appears.

Any advice would be appreciated...

Thanks!

[airman]

I need to ask what is XP Office is it a verson of XP Home or Pro or media Center never heard of XP Office as an Operating System.

[P Stastny]

sorry, meant pro not office. and for the record I haven't been able to try pro yet, but I did try windows 98 with no luck. yes I know that's old, but it's all I had at home. my pro is at the office and I'm on vacation currently...

-thanks

[crabby]

If it goes to the sign in page, you haven't booted to the disc. If you boot to the disc it will produce a big blue screen. You have to make sure you have the DVD drive as the first boot ddrive and that when it says boot to disk you press a key to initialise the setup.

crabby

[P Stastny]

I received similar advice from a friend, but I cannot locate where to switch the boot order. I understand you access it before you reach the sign in page, but I have seen nothing that comes right out and says "change boot order."

Sorry, obvious novice here, but I do appreciate the help regardless of whether I can do this or not...

[crabby]

The bios options are different for each PC. Could you give me your model number so I can try and figure out what you need to do?

crabby