ok, im not the best at all this kind of stuff.

all this talk of partions definately lost me.

what do i need to do to all this if something other than put in the cd and click wipe hardrive

[Edited on 13-10-2007 by James@CCC]

just delete all partitions and install onto unpartitioned space
it will automatically assign 8mb for the boot sector

Partitions seem different. XP always leaves 8mb spare whereas Vista does not. Won't harm the system to just format the hard drive leaving the existing partition there but it might throw up an error.

^^ as above. inser the XP CD, it will ask to boot of the cd (press any key to continue).
When you get round to it, it will ask if you want to format, choose yes :)

Also, make sure you got a good serial to install.

Or it'll be easy enough to have a look around the BIOS and do it anyway.

If you don't need any of the old data then delete the partition and start by creating and formatting a new one during the XP install.

Just put the XP CD in, reboot your computer and follow the options. You will re-format your HDD during the installation, it might try telling you that's a bad idea because there is already a windows installation on the disk, but ignore it.

You might need to set your boot priorities in the BIOS - there should be stuff in your instruction manual on how to do that if you don't know.

Ok, so a few months back someone put vista on my laptop thats too old to cope, so i want to reformat and put on xp. i have the disc ready, but wanna know how to wipe the harddrive of vista

can i just put in the xp disc and it'll be an option on start up?