well im officially a dumbass....

After reading what everyone had said about vista upgrade and thinking all the horror stories wouldnt happen to me.....they did.

I did all the upgrade process and i hate vista. Its running slow on my brand new Dell and alot of my devices arent working. My question is...how in the hell do I get it back to regular XP?

7/13/2007 2:34:05 PM

did you do an inplace upgrade or a fresh install.

because inplace is asking for pain.

7/13/2007 2:34:54 PM

i just used the dell upgrade to vista home edition disc, any ideas?

[Edited on July 13, 2007 at 2:49 PM. Reason : ss]

7/13/2007 2:49:29 PM

You're fucked buddy. There is no "downgrade" from Vista, only a clean XP install.

AFAIK

7/13/2007 2:55:13 PM

yea but did you upgrade your existing XP install or do a clean install of vista (you can do both from an upgrade cd).

upgrade installs have a 80% chance to suck. However a clean install on the same machine will probably work fine.

7/13/2007 3:01:25 PM

I thought there was no option of a "clean" install with the Vista Upgrade packages. You had to buy the full version if you wanted that.

7/13/2007 3:19:49 PM

^ i was under that same impression too so i just loaded it on top of xp.

so basically im looking at completely erasin harddrive and reinstalling XP?

7/13/2007 3:21:50 PM

^there is a workaround. You install the 'upgrade', then once you're up and running in Vista, reinsert the disc and it will let you do a fresh install on top of that one.

So basically you have to sit through the install twice, but still worth it.

in other words, you should be able to insert the disc and do a fresh install from where you are right now.

[Edited on July 13, 2007 at 3:25 PM. Reason : df]

7/13/2007 3:24:54 PM

actually all you need to do is toss in the disk, start the install, and when it asks for a cd key DONT put one in.

It will then ask you for the version of vista your key is valid for. Choose the right one. It will then do a standard clean install. Once its finished installing you put in the cd key.

7/13/2007 4:01:18 PM

^ do i lose all my data and shit already on my computer when i do this?

also kind of a newb question, but I only have about 100gb left on my 300gb harddrive. if i do this install will i drop below that 100 gb of free space?

7/13/2007 4:17:35 PM

If you do a clean install its going to wipe the drive clean. I would recommend backing up all your shit before doing it.

Your options are to:
a) tough it out with what you have now
b) back your shit up and do a clean xp install
c) back your shit up and do a clean vista install

7/13/2007 4:28:55 PM

changing operating systems.

SERIOUS BUSINESS

7/13/2007 10:02:35 PM

^ FTW

7/16/2007 12:30:55 AM