installing Windows XP over Window Vista

[badboy]

Hi i have recently bought a dell laptop with Windows Vista preinstalled on it. However Vista is crap, so i want to install Windows XP on.

How can i do that?
Also if i install Windows XP on my laptop will all the hardware work?

thanks

[Tee_111]

Vista is good once you get used to it, depends on your laptop mate, some of the hardware components might not work.

[badboy]

yeh my laptop only got 512 ram, so as you can imagine its kinda slow running windows vista
thats 1 of the other reason i want to degrade to windows xp.
anywayz quite temted to format the c: partition and jus doing a clean install mate thanks

[Annabell]

Hi Badboy

quite temted to format the c: partition and jus doing a clean install

That may not work (As soon as you boot from disk Vista has a nasty habit of recognizing XP is older and terminates the boot run) So i suggest you do as i do erase the data (Windows Vista) then you can clean install XP.

There is only one program that can do this 100% and thats DBAN "
Darik's Boot and Nuke ", some on DBAN for you below

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a small application that can completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, i have used it and it works very well and now can be loaded to USB Flash Drive (if your BIOS supports a Flash Drive boot option)

Darik's Boot and Nuke - Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction. Open Source Free Software. This kind of privacy software is not for the fainthearted as it is clearly designed to delete irrecoverably all your data..... but, if this is what you need, then DBAN works and works well. More info: DBAN is a means of ensuring due diligence in computer recycling, a way of preventing identity theft if you want to sell a computer, and a good way to totally clean a Microsoft Windows installation of viruses and spyware. DBAN prevents all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis.

DBAN Read / Download > Dark`s Boot and Nuke (Hard Drive Disk Wipe)

So as its a Laptip i suggest DL to Flash Drive or burn as bootable to CD-R, a 80Gig HDD will tack about 3 hours with DBAN "and please don't take any notice of high speed wipes on the Net, there not 100% and if you have fragments of Vista on your HDD and you load XP you will have problems. use DBAN then install XP (its worth doing properly) and when you have XP installed take a look > Here to tweak XP.
Any problems post back

You can try to Format with the XP Disk but more often that not it fails, when you do install XP do also install Service Pack 2 if it is not on your copy of the Windows XP Disk, you can DL SP2 > Here - Microsoft.com