HI Guys

I got a new laptop with Vista Home Basic on it. Specs are:

AMD Turion 64 MK36/1024MB RAM/80GB HDD/128MB Graphics

There are certain things that I want to do but can not because of Vista compatibility issue. Now it has two partitions one 65 gb as C:/ and the other recovery one about 15 GB. I would like to install XP professional on this laptop and make it dual boot.

What do you think I should do to go about that. DO I have to format the HDD or should I copy the recovery partition on CDs(I do have a vista dvd that came with laptop). What should I start with? Format HDD?? Make 3 partitions 20gb with xp, 20 gb with vista and 40 for data??(do i need to have another partition for recovery for vista out of 40gb???) I have not done a dual boot ever and not sure what is the best way to do it?

Should I install Xp pro first or Vista home basic first?

Your help would mean a lot to me, point me to the right direction cos I dont wanna mess it all up for me?

Raj

hey guys...anyone care to help or advice

Raj

Well after trying vista for this long i m getting back to XP...hope ur experience with vista is better than what i had...

Raj

here are the steps:

1. create recovery discs via the vista interface.
2. remove vista by formatting the ENTIRE hard disk.
3. install xp, and update ALL the drivers to work with xp, as u will incur A LOT of driver errors!
4. Then, install vista (if u really want to) on another partition.

Doing all this should take about a week to a month depending on your luck, so be patient. Remember, good things come to those who wait. Hope that helps, though my i never had to do this on a preinstalled vista pc as my vista experience is the best of any operating system experience.

P.S. i noticed that this post is kind of late, LOL!

you can install it anyway round thier are a lot of good guides around for installing vista then xp or xp then vista just google either of those search terms and you should find the guides!