Reinstall XP after Vista Beta

So i got the beta of Vista and I decided to tool around with it. At first, i just decided to do the upgrade seeing how I wanted all my programs/software/drivers. Well that didn't work out so well. So i had vista format my hdd and I ran things from there. It's been working fine ever since but i've decided I want XP till the clean more perfected version of windows is for sale. This is where my problem lies. I have a SATA hdd and vista is/has been my primary OS. I don't have a secondary. I am running vista right now if you can't tell from my description above and I want my xp back. of course, when i got to "install windows xp" on my disc it gives me an error stating that version of windows is old and will not continue. I thought about formatting my hdd and just installing xp anew. problem is, my computer's bios don't have the option of booting from a dvd/cd. There is one option saying something along the lines of "usb & cd-rom". I'm not sure what that is but i tried it and it didn't work. That's the only option my computer presents me with, displaying anything having to do with my disc drive. I have a dvd+-rw burner. It reads and writes on all types of media...besides blu ray and HD of course. But anyways, my computer doesn't boot the xp installation cd I put in and i also tried making a .iso for usb's to boot windows from and that didn't work either. I don't want vista as a primary OS. I'd like to make my computer dual bootable. Problem lieing in Vista not allowing me to use the xp disc to format and install. I even tried using partition magic and that norton partitioning tool to make a partition on my hdd from existing space. It seemed to work but when I got back to vista I had my full hdd space (what was left of it in the first place) with no new partition. I don't know of any other options besides buying another hdd and installing xp on that and using that as the primary OS. I would really really like to find a alternative to this instead of purchasing another hdd. Does anyone know what I could possibly do?

Computer Specs: Dell Dimension E510

160 gb SATA hdd
1gb ram
Optiarc DVD+-RW ATA Device
x86-based


hope that's enough information...

 

You won't need to purchase another HDD. Since you have a DVD Burner, you can simply burn all your important data on DVD-RW's (or HD-DVDs or Blu-Ray Discs), but YOU DON'T HAVE TO BURN THE OPERATING SYSTEM FILES (i.e. files used by Vista, like the 'Windows' folder). Alternatively, you can rent a large HDD, or any other large storage medium to temporarily back up your data. Then use the XP disc to boot the computer and choose to delete all the partitions (or just the vista partition, if you have more than one), and create a new one in the empty space. Install XP on it, and if you like, install Vista on another one AFTER XP, so that you can dual-boot.

That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. You'll never be able to set up the computer in the first place if yor BIOS didn't have that option. Refer to your motherboard manual for more info on that.

 

I have tried every single different configuration of booting. Even if the boot sequence didn't state anything having to do with my dvd burner or cd burner. I have a windows Professional disc that i've tried using. It doesn't boot. If need be, i'll go back into my bios, write down all the different boot sequences it provides me and show them to you.

 

Welcome to the migraine known as OEM BIOS.

If your boot sequence only has USB & CDROM, that's your boot from CD option...though I take it that option isn't even working?

One thing you can try, is set that option first. Hopefully you've kept your bootable hard drive CD??...I'd suggest booting from that first, wipe the drive of it's partition(s)..and format to NTFS. If that's successful, you should be able to then boot from the XP CD (if that's a bootable CD).

 

Morph: That was mint
and so true

 

Blast it all. To answer your question morph... No, that option is not working. I'm just trying to be very cautious because this is my main source of technology here and I don't want to be left with a hdd that can't boot any OS. Sad part of it now is, I dont't think my hdd came with a utility disc thing. The hdd came preinstalled from dell. Not sure if that matters but we'll just leave it at me not having one. Either because i'm a genius and lost it or because it actually didn't come with one.

 

Ok....well, let's open the box of surgical gloves, put on a pair and get to work.

Most Dell's are going to use Western Digital or Maxtor hard drives. They are nothing different from their retail brethren except the warranty policy should you by an OEM drive yourself....so with that aside, you can use the diagnostic software from WD/Maxtor's site. But, we'll need to know who the manufacturer actually is, then we can point you to the software. So....open your case, and look on the label of the drive. Post back.

 

So if I buy a pre-installed laptop with Windows Vista, I can just use my XP SP 2 CD to get rid of Vista with a reformat?

 

Im willing to bet you can't because so many laptops use custom install discs made just for a model

 

I have an old E-Machine with the custom reformat disc but I just use my XP SP 2 CD to boot the hard drive up and reformat the hard drive from there. Then it tells to make install XP SP 2. I'm thinking that it should work on a laptop pre-loaded with Vista?

 

Poo: It all depends on the laptop. If it comes with a retail copy of Vista then yes but if the laptop requires any special drivers or software the manufacture likley made a custom disk that would not be anything like a real MS disc. If the cover has the manufacturers name all over it you can bet it's different then a real Vista disc. Xp may or may not load and who knows what will not work without those custom files. IMHO If your going to spend the big $$$$ for a vista laptop you might as well stay with vista. Vista ready laptops are alot more powerfull then a XP laptop needs to be and are going to cost more.

Sorry to kibito87 for going a bit off topic here

 

Thanks that was what I needed to hear.

 

Iam having the same problem it cant reinstall xp no more. Damn this BEta VISTA. what shoudl i do ?

 

First do a search. This has been talked about much. Second it is more proper to start a thread of your own.

 

This might be a bit teedius but i had the same problems as well not being able to go from Vista to XP.

So I dug out my copy of Windows 98 and formatted the computer and installed 98.

Then I upgraded it to XP.

Hope this helps

 

Good Idea!!

 

I don't have a windows 98 disc. I'm not sure how you got windows 98 to install over vista but I don't think I can do that. Remember, my computer doesn't want to boot from an install disc when i reboot or turn on. I apologize for the delay Morph. My hdd is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9, 160gb. It does state it's for OEM bios right on the hdd itself. So what should I do?

1. I apologize for double posting. I didn't see the edit button.

2. I finally got a cd to boot in my computer. It was a BartPE disc. Doesn't install what I want it to but I finally got that to work if that helps. Ideally i'd like to have XP as a main OS and Vista as a secondary OS. For the most part though, I want XP back!

 

^^^^ Check in my other post. This was an accident.

 

i have your answer for you about wanting to put xp back in with out having to get another hard drive for your pc. what i did when i wanted to put xp back in was take a backup floppy of windows 95 and run an fdisk and after that is done do a format and after you do the format shut your pc off and take the 95 floppy disc out and put the windows 98se floppy in with the xp disc and when the screen comes up do the option that saids run with cd support and it will help you install xp back into your pc. thats what i had to do to mine. i sure hope this helps you out.

 

I have no floppy drive. No windows95 or windows98. Anything else?