How can you format a windows vista home edition with a windows xp 2005

[samuel00799]

Hello,
i was trying to format an Hp compaq which was loaded with windows vista with xp professional, but after booting from cd and copying d neccesary files, when it gets to the formating of the harddisk, it will say it cant find the hard disk but if i restart the system,it will boot successfully to desktop..pls what can i do????

 

[hang-the-9]

Here is where you are being confusing, it formats the drive BEFORE it copies the files. How can you copy the files and then format the drive? It will erase all of the files. Before messing around with this, make sure you have an XP SP3 disk, or you will have issues with a SATA motherboard, and also that your system is compatable with XP.

Boot off the XP CD. When you get to the part where it asks you which partition to install on, select it and then delete it. You will loose all the stuff on the disk so make sure your data is backed up. Then select the disk again to install on, it will ask you to format it, select NTFS quick format. It will then copy the files for the setup over.

 

[Saga Lout]

Hello,
i was trying to format an Hp compaq which was loaded with windows vista with xp professional, but after booting from cd and copying d neccesary files, when it gets to the formating of the harddisk, it will say it cant find the hard disk but if i restart the system,it will boot successfully to desktop..pls what can i do????

When it falls over at that stage, at worst the hard disk isn't mounted but at best it's because the system can't find SATA drivers. Try again and tap Function 6 quite early in the file copying stage then when the system stalls and asks for drivers, hit Enter to force it into looking further. You may just get away with it but as hang-the-9 says, your chances of success are higher with SP3 slipsteramed on to taht CD..