Please help. Have Dell Vostro 1700 loaded with VISTA and want the bitch off.

Lancey Howard

Lancey Howard

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I purchased a copy of Windows XP and have it ready to go, but I know Dell and their lovely "preload the world" on their systems. Can I just plug in the new disc and roll from there? Or do I need format the drive beforehand? If I have to, how do I do that?


Thanks guys
 
Pretty sure you can't load XP over Vista without wiping the whole thing and starting from scratch. Vista isn't THAT bad. You may want to just give it a chance.
 
[quote name='Lancey Howard']I purchased a copy of Windows XP and have it ready to go, but I know Dell and their lovely "preload the world" on their systems. Can I just plug in the new disc and roll from there? Or do I need format the drive beforehand? If I have to, how do I do that?


Thanks guys[/quote]

You'll need to format 3 (one is hidden) partitions that Dell had made and merged it into one partition.

From there begin the clean install of your OS.

It's that simple.
 
Formatting a hard drive isn't difficult, especially if you have a CD burner. What I do is that I use the Ultimate Boot Disc (which can be found using Google) and on that boot disc is a program called gdisk (or fdisk, depending which boot disc you download) and I use gdisk to swipe the entire hard drive of all its memory. What is impressive is that it clears the whole hard drive in seconds! Then just boot up your Windows XP installation disc, and install.

Though, I hear Vista isn't that bad now days. Did you try at least giving it a chance?
 
I still wonder why people hate Vista, I bought a new Dell 2 months ago and never have had a problem with Vista.
 
[quote name='DestroVega']I still wonder why people hate Vista, I bought a new Dell 2 months ago and never have had a problem with Vista.[/QUOTE]

Same. Nerd hype, maybe.
 
A short list of the problems I've been having since getting Vista:

  • Setting up my home network was a complete bitch, way harder than XP, and even now the ONLY way to get it to work was to add a password to my acct, so I can't access media from my HTPC without typing a password (my HTPC doesn't have a keyboard so typing is a pain)
  • The defrag sucks, a huge step back from XP, it does the exact same thing (which is to say, very little) yet they don't give you any info about it.. the GUI doesn't tell you progress or even before/after state of fragmentation
  • Vista doesn't end the war3.exe process when I close Warcraft, instead it maximizes use of one of the 4 cores on my proc (so I'm at 25% CPU usage) until I close it manually with task manager
  • Wallpaper doesn't work right in dual-display mode with different formats (one portrait, one landscape), I had to download a third party app to handle it (DisplayFusion)
  • Very few monitor drivers play nice with common video drivers -- in general, Vista drivers suck (not MSFT's fault entirely but still a drawback to Vista)
  • Sidebar hides icons even if there's no gadget there... surprisingly, even if Sidebar is disabled
  • Samsung monitor drivers screw up the color for the built-in picture viewer, and thumbnails are slow when using third-party image rendering

this is just what I can think of off-hand, I'm surely forgetting much more.. I run three machines (an XP laptop, an XP HTPC, a vista desktop) and I only have these issues on the Vista machine. I
 
From my experience Vista seems to run better on multicore processor based systems. Right now I have a Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 that I have Vista x64 running on. It runs like a dream. Compared to my old single core AMD64 based system WinXP ran better on that.
 
[quote name='Koggit']A short list of the problems I've been having since getting Vista:

  • Setting up my home network was a complete bitch, way harder than XP, and even now the ONLY way to get it to work was to add a password to my acct, so I can't access media from my HTPC without typing a password (my HTPC doesn't have a keyboard so typing is a pain)
  • The defrag sucks, a huge step back from XP, it does the exact same thing (which is to say, very little) yet they don't give you any info about it.. the GUI doesn't tell you progress or even before/after state of fragmentation
  • Vista doesn't end the war3.exe process when I close Warcraft, instead it maximizes use of one of the 4 cores on my proc (so I'm at 25% CPU usage) until I close it manually with task manager
  • Wallpaper doesn't work right in dual-display mode with different formats (one portrait, one landscape), I had to download a third party app to handle it (DisplayFusion)
  • Very few monitor drivers play nice with common video drivers -- in general, Vista drivers suck (not MSFT's fault entirely but still a drawback to Vista)
  • Sidebar hides icons even if there's no gadget there... surprisingly, even if Sidebar is disabled
  • Samsung monitor drivers screw up the color for the built-in picture viewer, and thumbnails are slow when using third-party image rendering

this is just what I can think of off-hand, I'm surely forgetting much more.. I run three machines (an XP laptop, an XP HTPC, a vista desktop) and I only have these issues on the Vista machine. I
 
Once I got rid of the side bar I was happy with Vista. I've had more problems with my laptop(disc drive, graphics card now) than I have with vista. Luckily Dell was running a sweet deal on the warranty( buy 1 or 2 year(s) get 3) when I got my laptop so I don't have anything to worry about.



And yes Xp is better but its been out for what 7+ years? It took them 2-3 service packs to get it where it is. Frankly I was happy with windows 98. I got pinball and a solid operating system
 
vista has been great for me. ive had it on a laptop for about a year now and just installed it on my new desktop and havent had any problems. i like vista a lot and have been puzzled about all the complaints. i understand when it first came out a lot of people had problems, but they seemed to have fixed those up nicely. it runs smooth, i can play games with no problems, do my shoops and videos and basically everything i did on xp with a better interface.

i say give it a shot OP. download all the updates and try it out.

another option, keep vista on a small partition to try and it and install xp on another partition. if you decide you do or dont like vista, delete the other partition.
 
[quote name='epobirs']You actually list the defrag as a major reason to be against Vista? Really? You spend that much time on defrag?

The networking is just a matter of a minor learning curve. Your HTPC shouldn't ever need to type a password if it is configured properly. I don't have any problem pulling stuff from Vista shares to XP systems and vice versa. Have you tried having duplicate accounts on all three machines?

The Warcraft issue sounds like something that is Blizzard's responsibility. Have you checked for a patch?


Have you tried Windows 7? You can download and install the release candidate as an upgrade for free right now. It's working nicely on two machines here and if nothing else, means you won't be wiping out your Vista install.[/QUOTE]

xp works where vista doesn't. nothing else matters.

the networking thing: Vista does not allow access to shared folders from accounts that have no password. google it if you don't believe me.

if you like vista that's great, but people should stop saying the vista haters are just groupthought sheep or whatever when there are many legitimate reasons for people to hate vista.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks guys. Yes, I gave it a chance for over a year - I'm just so tired of the "green ribbon of death." My desktop is 4 years older and the OS (XP) seems much more stable.

Again, thanks for your help!!!
 
Be glad you have a Dell if you want to go backwards to XP. Some computer manufacturers don't even supply XP drivers anymore which can really suck.
 
[quote name='Koggit']xp works where vista doesn't. nothing else matters.

the networking thing: Vista does not allow access to shared folders from accounts that have no password. google it if you don't believe me.

if you like vista that's great, but people should stop saying the vista haters are just groupthought sheep or whatever when there are many legitimate reasons for people to hate vista.[/QUOTE]


Hate is a strong word, lad. I've heard a lot of irrational reasons people hate Vista but damned few legit reasons. All too often it is people who don't want to learn and didn't have a good grasp of how it worked previously.

The Vista defrag works fine. No, it doesn't put on a show, nor should it. On a modern system defrag should be something you sit and watch. It is a background activity during inactive periods. The vista defrag annoyed me at first, until I realized I lacked any real reason to care.

You really don't understand the networking. googling will only produce more people who don't understand it. Very little in Vista networking is actually changed from XP. Just a few security issues were tightened up. Create an identical passworded account on all of the systems. It doesn't have to be an account you actually use, it just allows for an exchange of credentials in the background between machines. (The same applies to fully updated XP systems, so you aren't gaining anything by going backwards.)

I've been running Vista since the RTM and haven't encountered anything I couldn't easily fix with a little mental effort. The networking works fine once you understand it, and it isn't a steep learning curve. I like Windows 7 better but that is as it should be. I really recommend you try upgrading to the Win7 RC before going backwards to XP. It's a free download that is good for a year before requiring a release OS to replace it.
 
[quote name='epobirs']You really don't understand the networking. googling will only produce more people who don't understand it. Very little in Vista networking is actually changed from XP. Just a few security issues were tightened up. Create an identical passworded account on all of the systems. It doesn't have to be an account you actually use, it just allows for an exchange of credentials in the background between machines. (The same applies to fully updated XP systems, so you aren't gaining anything by going backwards.)[/QUOTE]

i literally lol'd at this.. unbelievable..


me: vista requires a password for local file sharing, which is inconvenient since my HTPC doesn't have a physical keyboard.

you: you're just doing it wrong.

me: no, i'm not, vista requires a passworded acct. google it.

you: you're still wrong. just create passworded accounts on both computers.


are you serious?

...


and re:defrag, it's minor but still a valid point -- vista gives you less info, you have no way of really knowing the state of your drives' fragmentation. it's not a big deal, but it's worth mentioning when listing ways in which XP is superior to Vista.
 
[quote name='epobirs']Hate is a strong word, lad. I've heard a lot of irrational reasons people hate Vista but damned few legit reasons. All too often it is people who don't want to learn and didn't have a good grasp of how it worked previously.

The Vista defrag works fine. No, it doesn't put on a show, nor should it. On a modern system defrag should be something you sit and watch. It is a background activity during inactive periods. The vista defrag annoyed me at first, until I realized I lacked any real reason to care.

You really don't understand the networking. googling will only produce more people who don't understand it. Very little in Vista networking is actually changed from XP. Just a few security issues were tightened up. Create an identical passworded account on all of the systems. It doesn't have to be an account you actually use, it just allows for an exchange of credentials in the background between machines. (The same applies to fully updated XP systems, so you aren't gaining anything by going backwards.)

I've been running Vista since the RTM and haven't encountered anything I couldn't easily fix with a little mental effort. The networking works fine once you understand it, and it isn't a steep learning curve. I like Windows 7 better but that is as it should be. I really recommend you try upgrading to the Win7 RC before going backwards to XP. It's a free download that is good for a year before requiring a release OS to replace it.[/QUOTE]
are you trying to say XP is not superior to Vista in these regards, or are you just saying Vista is acceptable? seems like the latter, and i don't really understand why you're posting.

XP's networking is superior. XP's defrag is superior. you haven't tried to refute these facts, yet you seem to be arguing.. i don't quite get it.
 
Am I the only one who's been able to network Vista and XP seamlessly without needing a password upon boot up or when accessing files? The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was making sure I got the IP addresses of the machines I was networking under the allowed settings in my firewall. Otherwise, it's a piece of frickin' cake to network them.

Here's a pretty simple article on how to network Vista & XP. It's all common sense if you know how to network your computers together to begin with.
 
Make sure the hardware is XP compatible. Some Dell system (XPS M1530 was one I was looking at for a work laptop) but it was designed for Vista and Dell didnt' have XP drivers available yet so it may not have worked well with XP.

Granted this was all according to our IT department who was advising against ordering it. I don't know much of anything about this stuff, so don't shoot the messenger if they were off base! I ended up going with a Thinkpad T400 instead.
 
[quote name='Liquid 2']Why bother with a formatter when there's already one on the XP disc, help1? :whistle2:?[/quote]

A great question, and it was one that caused me to lose pretty much a whole day. For some reason when I would use the XP formatter to clear the hard drive, it would tell me that it was formatted but when I would restart, it would still load up like I never formatted and all the files were still there. I kept trying alternative methods and asked people on various message boards, but it was such a simple process that simply wasn't working that other people couldn't really help me.
 
[quote name='help1']A great question, and it was one that caused me to lose pretty much a whole day. For some reason when I would use the XP formatter to clear the hard drive, it would tell me that it was formatted but when I would restart, it would still load up like I never formatted and all the files were still there. I kept trying alternative methods and asked people on various message boards, but it was such a simple process that simply wasn't working that other people couldn't really help me.[/QUOTE]
Why would you restart? When it tells you that you've formatted the drive, it hasn't applied the changes (overwritten the MFT) yet. When you actually start installing, it would go to work.
 
taskbar, set to autohide, wouldn't.. until i uncheck autohide taskbar, apply, recheck, apply.. then it hides fine. it's a rare but reoccurring problem.
 
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