vista the gift that keeps on giving

[cptmac]

I want Vista off my hard drive.....Here is the consensus. To remove vista, install XP. Use XP to reformat the disk. And Vista will be erased. So I load the XP disc in the DVD drive, restart the comp. The licensing agreement, press F8 if you agree, nothing happens. I cannot get past this screen. Windows setup sends you to the license agreement, press F8 if you agree. The screen is frozen. To remove vista, you need to install XP. What am I missing? What would happen if I took a magnet and rubbed it all over this hard drive?

 

[bobbknight]

It sounds like you may have a problem with your XP boot CD.
If you have a way to format the hard drive with Vista on it, do so.
Many free solutions are out on the net to help with formating or wiping your drive.

As to clearing the hard drive with a magnet, you will need a very powerful magnet to do that.
Think scrapyard crane magnet.

 

[Scotteq]

Make a bootable floppy
shut down
Boot to the floppy you just made
format c:

Then do a fresh install of XP

 

[cptmac]

Teach me how to make a bootable floppy. Step by step, thank you.

 

[ir_efrem]

www.bootdisk.com

pick a w98se boot disk or somethin..

once at a command line type in

a: <press enter>

fdisk <press enter>

choose from the menu delete volume (or somethin like that, it has been a while and i do not remember the exact choices)

try the options for delete, it should be listed under NON DOS PARTITION

exit fdisk (another menu choice)

it will tell you that you need to reboot to make the changes (or somethin like that)

the contents on the hard drive are now gone....

no need to format or any of the above

I would think the XP cd is a lil messed up though, i could be wrong.


and yes (or somethin is my technical term)

 

[tlmck]

Another option. http://dban.sourceforge.net/