Replacing Vista with XP on new laptop

[slash196]

I'm sure this question is asked over and over, but I just bought a new laptop, and unfortunately the only OS option was Vista Home Premium. I don't want to turn this into a Vista-fueled flamefest; the reason I don't want Vista is that the laptop's specs simply aren't up to the task and I'd rather not unneccesarily hamstring performance. I can get a legit copy of XP for next to nothing through my school, so my question is this: How can I get Vista COMPLETELY off my computer, with no vestiges left to muck up my XP install? I can't format the C: drive while I'm running Vista; will I have to install XP on the D: first, then format C? Or is there another, better way? Thanks in advance.

 

[covert24]

well just pop in the xp pro disc and boot from it. then just do a full format through the windows setup.

or you can download a nuker which writes zeros or a random pattern to your entire hard drive and then just install xp after you do that.

 

[Arkaign]

Not to throw stones, I'm far from a Vista fan.

But : IMHO buying an extra 1GB (2GB DDR2 notebook kit is only $70!) of ram for the notebook and tuning the Vista loadset (uninstall craplets, replace bogus AV with decent AV, etc) would be less hassle than doing all that. Basically : if you have to ask that kind of question, while you will most likely succeed in the end, it's probably not worth the effort overall.

 

[VladMM]

Pecisely. Add to the the SATA issues on most new laptops, meaning that you will have to slipstream them on to the XP cd, etc, means that you should just plump for another stick of RAM and leave vista as it is.

 

[Rottie]

Or you can disable Vista eye candy feature and Vista can make it look like Windows XP or classic 2000

 

[slash196]

If you think I'm gonna wait five minutes for my laptop to boot up you're crazy. Vista is not an option

Incidentally, it's already been wiped from my computer. Now I guess I have to find chipset drivers and stuff. Though the website doesn't appear to offer them in XP versions. But I'd sooner run default Windows drivers than run Vista. I booted the computer up and couldn't wait till I wiped that stain.

 

[reverend boltron]

Was this one of the first times you had used Vista? I know that the first few times that I used it before it took *forever* to do things, but that went away. I read something about indexing things and whatnot. Basically, it goes much slower at first so it can get things in order to be much speedier later on.

 

[nerp]

With 2GB of ram, my laptop boots and shuts down faster than XP ever did.

And I don't remember the last time I actually booted. Hibernate is there for a reason.

 

[VladMM]

I wanted to say the same thing, but I refrained, in light of his "stain" comment - quite clear what the attitude is.