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    uninstall vista

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by G01kur_Kisel, Sep 6, 2008.

  1. G01kur_Kisel

    G01kur_Kisel Notebook Guru

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    ok this may sound as a dumb question and maybe it is but I dont want any ghost registry or information from vista to be lying around when I install xp again, since my laptop came clean with no OS on it I installed vista. So is it as simple as just putting the xp disc and letting it format the C drive for me?

    or do I have to do some special stuff since it is vista, just want the heads up.
     
    G01kur_Kisel, Sep 6, 2008
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  2. bigozone

    bigozone JellyRoll touring now

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    to help erase all links to data previously on the PC i would delete the current HDD PARTITON and create a new one (easily done as a part of the XP pro install process)....

    but as long as you do a FORMAT as a part of the INSTALL you should be fine.
    just read the install screens and make sure you FORMAT the HDD
     
    bigozone, Sep 6, 2008
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  3. Varadero

    Varadero Notebook Consultant

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    Hmm, that didn't work for me - I had a load of registry entries relating to the old O/S.

    Used Darik's Boot & Nuke (open source), then installed XP pro. Only after that was the HDD truly all wiped clean. :)
     
    Varadero, Sep 10, 2008
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  4. kanehi

    kanehi Notebook Deity

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    Choose complete format instead of quick format.
     
    kanehi, Sep 10, 2008
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  5. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Anything that does a full reformatting of the hard drive will do it - so long as it wipes out the partitions and the tables the NTFS file system uses to locate data, there shouldn't be anything lying around that would be accessible to an XP installation. If you really want to keep the beast of paranoia quiet, get a data eraser that'll write random nonsense to the drive a couple of times.

    To the extent anyone's had a _Vista installation come back to haunt an XP installation, it can only happen if the person was lazy and tried to do a quickie install of XP over _Vista by just popping the CD/DVD in - that doesn't work, as it will usually do what amounts to a repair installation, and will try to scavenge as much as possible from the pre-existing installation.

    Of course, if you really want to be sure you've exorcised _Vista, buy a brand-new virgin hard drive and swap drives.
     
    Shyster1, Sep 10, 2008
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  6. Rodster

    Rodster Merica

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    As has been discussed many times. The difference between a quick and complete format is that a complete format just checks for bad blocks, that's all. ;)

    If you want to zero erase a drive you'll need a third party app to do the trick.
     
    Rodster, Sep 10, 2008
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