[megabyte]

just tried it.......after xp asks you if you want to install or repair and pressing either option it says "windows cant find any hard drives"

[Hybr!d]

You have an SATA hard drive, XP install needs drivers for SATA hard drives as they came out after XP.

Installing drivers before install in a pain in the ass so instead you should be able to go into the BIOS and set you hard drive to run in IDE mode.

Then try again.

[megabyte]

Hi Dave.........was messin for ages last night and there was no option for me to do as you say in the bios........been reading other stuff on the net on this and it makes sense as it isnt meant to be un-installed as they say, cause i remember when i was deleting files from the partition i had "old" files from the previous install from the manufacturerers "Basic" install to delete. Meaning that these werent deleted when the partition was formatted when i put my "Home premium" version in. As far as i see it my choices are....i can wipe the disc with these programmes that erase discs......buy a new hard drive........or use the sledge.

[Hybr!d]

There is no conspiracy theory, it is not locked from being un-installed lol, it's simply how PCs work.

You want to put XP on a machine made after XP, the hardware you have has to be messed with for XP to recognize it and install.

Even if you could delete the partition in Vista as you have tried you still need to boot off the XP CD and try and put an old OS on a new machine and you hit the no hard drive software issue.

Even if you wipe the disc with some program or buy a new hard drive you will still have the same issue when you try to put XP on and it does not see the clean drive or new one due to it being too new for XP.

So as I said, it's no ones fault other than the makers of your PC, they should have put an option in the BIOS so you can install old XP software, as they do not you are stuck with Vista.

[megabyte]

ok no problem i dont mind vista as long as i can use it, i would prefer xp but any working programme will do. So my only option then is to wipe this disc and start again.

[Hybr!d]

In your case I would boot off the Vista CD, wipe, install and start fresh.

Vista is a perfectly good OS, maybe in the start it had some compatibility issue but now there is no reason not to run it, it is an advancement in software technology.

Even the haters that claim it is a memory hog don't really have a case as all the fancy pretty memory hog stuff like aero features can be turned off.

[megabyte]

I think it has worked Dave i did a quick format and no old files in the other partition.

Now how do i get rid of an error password in the bios

[anth11]

Hi Megabyte
Microsoft don't like you uninstalling their precious software.
I'd boot from a live Puppy Linux CD (an 80MB download) and run GParted. That can wipe the vista partition.
Who knows, you might like Puppy and throw Vista away( probably not).