Hi

I'm trying to format my vista partition with a XP cd and it does'nt work. How can I format the disk now.
Anybody has this problem.

start winXP, rightclick ur vista partition -> Format
i've done that 3-4 times and it has always worked..

well I dont have a XP partition, I want to replace vista by XP

My first problem was that(http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=86684&st=0&gopid=589978&#entry589978), I cannot install XP on my SATA HD, because it was saying that VAIMRAID.sys (.cat .inf) is missing just before installing Windows , I know that those files are on the driver disk but windows dont know how to find it, so after pulling all my hair many time I try Vista and it instal perfeclly without the driver problem, but now I have couple of my main program that I use that dont work under vista. So I want to take the vista partition to try other version of XP but now I cannot format the vista partition, im really p***ed off

Formatting doesn't remove the Vista boot manager. You'll either need to repartition or use the XP CD to boot up to the recovery console and then do the fixmbr, fixpart, fixboot commands.


Jim

You'll either need to repartition or use the XP CD to boot up to the recovery console

That what im trying but, it wont format, there is an error message, but that was yesterday night at home, now im at the office and cant remember exacly what was the error message

any chance you could tell us the error msg?

I've installed XP over a Vista install many times so far, using the Disk Manager during Windows Setup to delete the partition and then make a new one.

I'm assuming that you want to get rid of Vista and use the partition its presently on to install XP....right? If so, you will need to delete the partition Vista is on first, then create a partion, then format that partition.

I'm assuming that you want to get rid of Vista and use the partition its presently on to install XP....right? If so, you will need to delete the partition Vista is on first, then create a partion, then format that partition.

Yes this is exactly what I want to do, but cant get rid of Vista, windows wont format my partition

No, I have not reinstalled XP over Vista before....

I'm just curious. You cannot delete the partition and then (quick) format it when installing XP?
I know XP gives the option to delete and then reformat it using Fat or ntfs.

The problem come when it try to format or quick format, it start and then tell me that it can't

autoct,

"The problem come when it try to format or quick format, it start and then tell me that it can't"

The reason is; Vista will not let you just re-format its partition. You will need to delete the Vista partition first then recreate a partition before you can format.

I have one solution. Maybe you can try.

As we know, Vista is base on NT6, not NT5 any more. Because windows xp

bases on NT5, I am sure this version defferent and you can not use NT5 console apply to NT6, that is why it dosen't work.

I think the only way to solution this is using VISTA original disk, boot from DVDROM, and setup step come to manage disk step. select Advance, and then delete the VISTA sytem partition.

and then cancel the setup. restart your pc.