dell + preinstall vista

Can anyone help me out with wiping vista to install xp. Do i need to just find a free program to wipe my hard drive, insert the windows xp cd and do a clean install?

Also i have an xp cd from another computer, will i be able to use this cd? or is it locked to the computer

 

If you boot to your xp disk you will be able to format the hard drive thus removing vista and installing a fresh copy of windows xp.

You xp disk from your other pc will work. You may need to tell them that you want to have it on your laptop come activation time. You would just have to call them and tell them what you wish to do. Assuming you arn't using it on the PC anymore. However you may not have any activation problems at all, its a crap shoot.

However if you are going to use the windows operating system I would stick with Vista. I uninstalled it form my PC and put windows xp back on thinking I would be glad to be rid of the wireless card issue I was having with Vista, however there is a noticable difference in performance. Vista handles applications really well and speeds up load times. XP is great for computers built around xp, and even then Vista is starting to catch up with compatibility.

Also you laptop is optimized for vista. Thus it has vista drivers for all your laptops hardware. It could prove a pain to look for xp drivers for your current hardware. If I were you I'd stick with Vista.

 

I popped in the xp cd from the computer and it greys out the option of even installing xp, so i can't select it. why would this be ><

 

You booted from the disk when you started your laptop?

 

ok well now that i did that lol... it says that there are no hard disk drives on my computer and that it could not continue.

 

Odd, I am not sure what you are up against. Installing windows fresh is really standard stuff and very straightforward. You should just have to boot do the disk, in which you get a blue screen that loads some drivers for xp to begin installation, and from there tell it which partition or drive to install to and then tell it to format the drive before install. Then about 30 min or less later you have windows xp on your laptop.

Standard stuff really. Not sure what your issue could be.

 

yea thats what i thought, maybe i need to wipe vista completly before i put it on.

 

XP does not include SATA drivers, so it can't see the HD unless you load SATA drivers using F6 at the prompt. The easiest thing would be to find XP drivers (if you can) and slipstream them into your XP disk.

If you head over to the Dell part of the forum you will probably find a guide that explains how to do this.