Problem with partitions and Windows XP

Hi everyone,

I just got an Acer Aspire 5520G with Windows Vista.
As I wanted to downgrade, I popped in my XP disc, booted from CD-rom and deleted my D:\ partition (as I was not sure whether I'd be succesfull), and installed Windows XP. I then installed the drivers, and everything worked fine. However, I then realised I had two partitions left (C:\, where Vista was installed, and F:\, a hidden partition with the restoration files from Acer). Since everything seemed to be working fine, I decided to delete those. As F:\ was hidden, I figured I'd pop in the XP disc again and format the section- a mistake, it seems. Sure, XP formatted C:\. However, I think I pressed ENTER (for install) instead of C (for create partition). XP proceeded to install itself after formatting the disc (because of the formatting I thought I was doing fine, and I left it to run...). When I noticed it was doing the XP install thing, I popped out the disc, hoping my laptop would boot from D:\.
However, now it keeps giving me an error that a file can't be found (I assume it's from the brutally cancelled install).

My question is; is there any way I can go back to using my D:\ Windows install, or do I have to go back, reformat the whole bunch, install all drivers and programs etcetera?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers

PS:
When I try to start it up without a CD it says:
NVIDIA Boot Agent [blabla, loading]]
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-MOF: Exiting NVIDIA Boot Agent.

Any suggestions? Might it be because I deleted the hidden partition, and not so much 'cause I aborted the installation?

 

Sounds like a mess. How big is your HDD? What was on the hidden partition, some kind of restore feature or diagnostics?

If it's 120GB or more, with Gparted, I'd make a30-40GB for C:\XP and the rest for D:\Data. Reinstall XP, update etc. and move the default My Documents to D using this guide

 

if you started formatting the whole disk then i seriously doubt that you could go back. i know file recovery is possible from that but i am 99% sure that your system is gone.

 

the HDD is 160 GB. I didn't format the partition that has XP on it, only the one with Vista. Based on your advice I'll make a 30 to 40 GB disc for XP and reformat what's left and put it together... Thanks!

Right; reinstalled XP again, formatted D:\, reinstalled the drivers, made XP shut up about the modem detected on high definition audio bus. Seems all's clear. Thanks!