Please Help! Need to Reformat! HELP!

Thanatos

Thanatos

Active Member
Hey guys, i need to 'downgrade'. i have a slow Vista machine and i want to put XP on it in the hopes that it will be sped up. How? I want to reformat the partition (Don't know how), and I don't know if I can simply insert the xp CD and everything will be fine because the drivers for the CD drive are gone! so my question is:

How do I reformat a Vista machine and how will I install XP on it afterward? please help!
 
First off, what pc/laptop is this? You would need to make sure that there are XP drivers available for the hardware. If I were you, I would actually upgrade to windows 7.
 
Its a Dell PC and frankly, its a piece of crap. it came with XP at first, but my dad upgraded, and it just slowed it down. it is a few years old. I want to wipe it clean and put XP on it. I have an XP re installation disk that i used on my good computer and i want to use it on the Vista. do i have to make a bootable CD? Iso image on a CD?
 
You need to find the dell recovery cd's that was issued with the system and boot to it to reinstall XP. If you don't have them, then you will need to contact dell to get them send to you.
 
i do have those. thanks. my dad was making me do it the "Old way" so that i would learn something.thanks.
 
" . . . it's a piece of crap!"

Not with linux would it so . . . so why not go with a distro designed to make older machines like yours do what you thought impossible? Try Swift Linux!

Download here

Have fun & be pane-free!

SystemRescueCD 1.3.5 will reformat, just look for DBAN
 
Last edited:
Green dog252 said:
how would i reformat the vista machine?
Click to expand...
insert and boot from the XP CD. It will take a while loading the default stuff (35 min on a P4 2,53 130nm, less than 3 on an i3-380m, just depends on HDD speed and processor speed). Then you will need to hit enter to continue, F8 to agree to the EULA, and select your partition. If it is already NTFS, then just hit enter and install.
pane-free said:
" . . . it's a piece of crap!"

Not with linux would it so . . . so why not go with a distro designed to make older machines like yours do what you thought impossible? Try Swift Linux!

Download here

Have fun & be pane-free!

SystemRescueCD 1.3.5 will reformat, just look for DBAN
Click to expand...
I am glad you suggest Linux, but if he cant even do a simple XP install himself, I doubt that he could get into linux fast.
 
wolfeking said:
insert and boot from the XP CD. It will take a while loading the default stuff (35 min on a P4 2,53 130nm, less than 3 on an i3-380m, just depends on HDD speed and processor speed). Then you will need to hit enter to continue, F8 to agree to the EULA, and select your partition. If it is already NTFS, then just hit enter and install.
I am glad you suggest Linux, but if he cant even do a simple XP install himself, I doubt that he could get into linux fast.
Click to expand...
I Dual-boot XP and ubuntu. I use ubuntu just as much as i do XP. i made the partitions and did it. My dad was making me do it install XP a weird way and I couldn't figure out how. I know how to install xp. switch boot priorities, and boot from the cd. it wasnt hard. I'm not dumb, just confused.
 
im sorry for the misunderstanding. I wasnt saying your dumb, I was saying that there are major differences in the use of Linux and Windows.

No offense to the team, but Ubuntu is more OSX/Windows in use than Linux. Mint aint far behind.
 
anyway, i did it the normal way. my dad wanted to try to boot from a USB drive once, is that possible with XP?
 
Green dog252 said:
anyway, i did it the normal way. my dad wanted to try to boot from a USB drive once, is that possible with XP?
Click to expand...

Your dad wanted to install XP from USB stick?
If yes,it is possible.There are tools which prepare all the neccessary files from your XP CD on your USB stick.Only your USB stick must be 1 GB in size minimum.
 
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