Removing VISTA.

[Totem2]

Hi, Could someone give me some addvice on how to remove VISTA from an ACER laptop It come from new already on the hard drive with no CD. I have tried to format it By puting the win XP disk in, As that is what I want to replace it with, but it wont let me. I bought a Utills disk that said it would Boot any drive and let you format it But that dosent work. It seems that microsoft have got it realy sewn up, so that you carnt remove it , Any sugestions will be very kindly received Thanks Jim.

[tommytommy]

Hi Jim

Yes it can be done and it will have nothing to do with M$ getting it really sewn up.

You need a Windows XP Disc, you need to make sure in the BIOS the laptop is set to boot from CD-ROM. This will then boot into a Windows XP installation type wizard. Follow through the options and format the drive. Again, it will give you options.

Once the drive has been formatted, it will start the installation process of Windows XP. Don't forget you will need to download the drivers for your laptop for Windows XP platform as most things will not work as it was made for Vista. I'd recommend using another computer to do this and have the files on a USB pen drive so you can easily install them

Hope this helps

[pontiend]

Another way to boot from the cd, is to keep tapping the ESC button at the first splash screen.This will give you the option to boot from HDD, or CD.or USB stick if you have one plugged in.

[abbs2002]

Removing vista & replacing with XP operating system can be a problem, you will down grading the operating system on your laptop, normally you will need a Vista installer disk to remove vista then your hard drive will be ready for XP installation.
But there is a simple way of doing it with help of "hard disc data erase utility", change boot sequence in the bios to CD/DVD 1st boot device, hard drive second to boot, then load a "hard disc data erase utility" which can be downloaded free from many sites across the net.
This is the simple way to do it, No mess, no fuss.
Ps: don’t forget to back up all your data first.

[pontiend]

Also you will have a vista recovery partition on your hard drive if you reformat the drive you will loose the ability to restore vista should you ever want to.

[martin-f]

i have just had this problem and i had to remove the vista recovery partition on hard drive then i could install the new o/s

[abbs2002]

Originally Posted by martin-f

i have just had this problem and i had to remove the vista recovery partition on hard drive then i could install the new o/s

yes there is always a problem with down grading Operating System untill the hard drive is formated, this software "hard disc data erase utility" can wipe the hard drive clean so the installation of XP will be easy.

[kerrywez]

Hi before you do anything you should make your recovery disks for recovery of your system, in the event that you wish to do back to Vista at some stage, you will also need the drivers for the installed software and hardware on your machine. You should also know that if you are going to use a copy of XP that is not genuine you will be be able to update your OS and will be leaving your laptop open to attack.

Windows 7 upgrade is cheap and I have it running on my Acer and it is way better than Vista and XP. The added benefit of upgrading to 7 is that it will keep all your drivers and any work you have done setting up your laptop, it just installs and keeps everything the way you have it. It takes much longer to do the upgrade that a clean install, because it saves all your stuff and then reinstalls it for you on the Windows 7 OS, but it is well worth the wait.

I would not make the retrograde step of installing XP, when windows 7 is so cheap as an upgrade, but it is up to you, but please do make your recovery disks, you will need two blank DVD disks for this.

Regards Wez

[pontiend]

Unless you are downgrading for compatability reasons,As kerrywes says it may make more sense to upgrade to 7.

[mr_shazzi]

Slap Windows XP disk in drive. Boot up, and keep pressing I think F12 for the boot menu and boot up ya computer from the CD/DVD drive. and it'll load files and then simply delete the vista partition already set on there and just install windows xp on it simples.... Then you'll be needing drivers for your Acer laptop....