reformatting will kill my w7j restore partition?

Hi, i got my w7j with vista home premium. However i don't really like it. I've got a copy of windows xp and wanted to make a fresh install of it on my laptop. My question is if go through the installation process for xp and reformat the first partition, will that kill my restore partition? i'm not too sure where the restore partition is located. Although i don't like vista, i'd rather keep the option of being able to go back to it at a later stage. Asus did provide a recovery DVD, i'm not too sure what the function of this DVD is though as i was able to restore Vista to a clean start without even popping the DVD in. I'm wondering if i will be able to do the same if i formatted and installed XP.

Cheers,
Alex

 

The recovery DVD can restore your laptop to the factory settings but will take a bit longer than the recovery partition. However, installing XP shouldn't overwrite you recovery partition anyway. If you use a partition editor (i.e. Gparted) to look through your partition tables, you'll see the labels for each of the partitions on your disc. As you install XP, make sure to only overwrite the partition which currently houses Vista. As a hidden partition, the recovery partition shouldn't even be an option during the install (if I remember correctly).

~ Brett

 

cheers thanks for that. I just wanted to install xp because for some reason.. my graphcs card go 7400 seems to get slower benchmarks than everyone else... ive no idea why, so i think it might be driver issues in vista.. lets hope. i only get 1600 in 3dmark05