Formating Laptop

[coldhearted]

Hello guys, i have recently brought a laptop with vista home installed. I want to format it and install windows xp. How should I do this, as i am pretty new to laptops. Also, are there any precautions that i need to consider while formating it?

thanks in advance
cold

[akito925]

Hello guys, i have recently brought a laptop with vista home installed. I want to format it and install windows xp. How should I do this, as i am pretty new to laptops. Also, are there any precautions that i need to consider while formating it?

thanks in advance
cold

Back up EVERYTHING that came from the manufacturer. If you decide in the future you want to sell your laptop and want to restore it back to be original state that you bought it brand new from day 1. Image the Hard drive back it up onto DVD. Use the manufactures' backup utilities to back the entire hard drive; they have instructions in case you lose your hard drive and how to restore it... follow your manufactors on how to create a restore disk if you encounter a system harddrive failier or some kinda of failier.. And then format the laptop.

What brand is your laptop anyways?

[coldhearted]

I brought the HP laptop from best buy. I am just not sure how to format a laptop, as i used a floppy disc to format cpus.

thanks in advance

[coldhearted]

bump
any help would be much appreciated!

[coldhearted]

i also have a question, will i lose any important stuff if i reformat and change it to xp?

[fenrus]

drivers and stuff may be a pain to get and have set up on a laptop. depends on the brand too.

Well if you format, you lose everything. that's by definition, a format.

I too would recommend making an image. Just get the hard drive as empty as possible (like get rid of your documents and music), and make an image. You might need 2, even 3 DVD's to do it, cuz Vista is such a hog.

To format, just stick your Win XP CD in, and reboot. It'll bring you to the install Win XP screens (assuming you have boot from CD enabled), and just follow the instructions and be prepared to lose everything.

[Ojam]

if you formated cpus you probably shouldn't try a laptop on your own.

[coldhearted]

Do you think the drivers are any useful? btw i have hp

drivers and stuff may be a pain to get and have set up on a laptop. depends on the brand too.

Well if you format, you lose everything. that's by definition, a format.

I too would recommend making an image. Just get the hard drive as empty as possible (like get rid of your documents and music), and make an image. You might need 2, even 3 DVD's to do it, cuz Vista is such a hog.

To format, just stick your Win XP CD in, and reboot. It'll bring you to the install Win XP screens (assuming you have boot from CD enabled), and just follow the instructions and be prepared to lose everything.

[Kasakato]

Do you think the drivers are any useful? btw i have hp

Drivers are needed to run a computer. Just keep Vista for your own good.