Does anyone know how to remove Vista and replace it with XP?

format and reinstall, then just have to add all your stuff back on

I tried that. I have a nice fresh copy of XP but my computer won't let me install it.

You're still having issues with that, sweets?

Yes and I have my hammer ready!

Take it to a thec..cheaper than smashing

without knowing what the error message says cant help to much sorry

What kind of computer? HP, Dell, Sony, etc... etc..

When you put the CD in the drive, start the computer, it loads Vista instead of booting from the CD first or it does and your missing the screen where it tells you to press any key to boot from CD? Also, when computer boots hitting F12, F11 or ESC (Depending on computer) will give you a screen to select your boot drive i.e. CD-Rom, HDD, Floppy.... etc... Try that, see if you see anything about Boot options.. when computer first boots (During POST)...

Give us more info, else cant help... :)

Gateway. It won't even recognize the CD.

GATEWAY? Oh dear......are you able to take it back??

OMG Gateway.. yeh anyways....

I think its F10 to bring up boot menu, so you can select your boot device "CD-Rom" press F10 as soon as you see the first screen (prolly something like "GATEWAY" with there gay logo..) :))))

ummm put your XP disk in and reboot your comp but first go into you BIOS settings and set your boot options to boot from your cdrom

Hi and great question!

If you have an original XP disk, the process will be fairly simple. Just insert the XP CD into your drive and restart the computer. You want to make sure that it is set to read from the CD drive, and this might take going into your bios settings. Just check the computer for when it first starts to boot up and look for "setup" and press the key it tells you to.

Once it begins to start up, Win xp will read the disk and notice that there is another OS on it. There will be an option to delete/format the partition and this is what you want to do. This will completely delete and erase Vista, so if you ever want it back, you better make sure that you have the backup or original disks that came with your computer for Vista.

Just follow the installation process for XP after that and it should be good to go!

Here is a good source for some common problems associated with doing this:

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0....

well if you lived anywhere near north jersey I would happily get rid of vista for you.

That's why I choose Dell computers now. My inspiron laptop came
with vista.I have a Dell xp pro disc and Dell's website has the drivers for xp and vista ready for download how convenient.

This is most likely your problem. Most computers these days like Dell and Gateway disable the ability to boot from anything except the hard drive. You have to get into the bios and change that option to allow the computer to boot from disk. Make sure you save your work in the bios before you exit or the changes won't take effect.

Actually all manufactorers have the discs to remove Vista and take it back to XP. You just have to ask when you buy your computer.

I think it sucks. I had a coupon for vista because it was not out yet when i bought my laptop.

Then when I saw the problems i like an idiot did not pay the 10 dollar s/h fee. which ain't right.

But i got an excellent deal sent email to me for a hi def wireless n media reciever with upconvert dvd. normal 3 or 350 for 129 free shipping but it only uses Vista media center or premium whatever it is called. sucks

But I use http://mozy.com/ unlimited online storage. you just set it up if you want and it will upload a copie of everything u have except the operating system and then reformat and load xp and go back and get what ever you want back on your computer and leave what you do not use much on thier. It is rated #2 for online storage. but i like it better than #1 because thier is no bandwith limit per month on downloading or having friends or families download movies or whatever from thier if you trust them with your password for it. It will download to any computer with your password. Most of them will not.

only 4.95 a month I believe is a great deal they gaurantee no loss of data.. They use tape storage

Thank you everyone, for your help.

I’m not unfamiliar with computers but Vista is definitely a different game. I did some research (thank you Raven for the link). In the end, I did manage to blow out Vista but was still unable to install XP.

On a good note, I reinstalled Vista and was finally able to download the software that I needed. I’m not sure what I did during the reinstall that enabled me to override what was preventing Vista from allowing me to do this. Vista still sucks but I can live with it.

Again, thank you for taking the time to try to help me.

In case you ever want to ionstall XP you will have to use a cd like Maxtor MaxBlast or something similar to boot and format your hard drive because unless I am wrong XP won't install over a newer version of a Microsoft OS, thats why you need to format your HD with another tool and not the one that comes with the XP cd