Windows Vista forum: how to wipe clean my hard drive

Use these to wipe the drive and make the partitions to install XP first. Be aware you will lose all programs, drivers and data.

New/Clean Install/Re-install



1=Set Bios to boot from CD/ROM as first boot device(Entering the BIOS and changing the boot order is not discussed here, you may have to refer to the computers manual for this).(For a clean or new drive the boot sequence does not matter)

2=Place the OS/CD in the CD/ROM drive and Re-Boot

3=Watch for the prompt to ''Press any key to boot from CD/ROM'' Press ASAP (Ignore when prompt appears on any reboot) (You will only get this prompt if there is an OS installed).

4=windows Setup (Loads Files)

5=To setup XP now press ''ENTER''

6=Press F8 for license

7=To continue installing a fresh copy of windows without repairing press ''ESC''(You will not get this prompt for a new or unpartitioned drive)

8=For a new or unpartitioned drive press ''ENTER'' (or you can press ''C'' if you want to create multiple partitions).

9=For a drive that has partitions, operating system or any data on it, you should press ''D'' to delete the partition and start out with a clean drive
.
10=Press ''enter''

11=You will be prompted again, press ''L''(You will do this for each partition) , Now you are ready to partition and format

12=Press ''C'' (Only if you want multiple partitions, Otherwise press ''Enter''

13=To setup windows on the selected partition press ''enter''

14=Select-format the partition using the NTFS file system

15=Press ''enter'

16=Wait for format to complete

17=Computer will start copying files to the installation folders (this may take several minutes)

18=Computer will re-boot, do not press any key to boot from CD/ROM when prompted
.
19=follow the on-screen instructions to complete loading windows.

Go to this web site on how to duel boot XP and vista.


http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060622/installing-and-uninstall-vista-beta-2-for-dual-boot-with-xp/