made big mstake trying to install xp over vista....please help !!!

[adrienne.79]

This is my first post in a forum.... I have an hp a1730n 64x2 processor..320gb hdd Nvidia GeForce 6150 le graphics....pre-installed vista home premium..upgraded to ultimate a few months ago. I am a 1st year undergrad majoring in computer science so I am fairly knowledgeable with computers...most of the time.

My big problems started when my fiance wanted to play a game(nascar heat) not compatible with ultimate (but worked on premium). So i partitioned 37 gb of the hdd to install xp and his game and dual boot. Did it wrong...Vista would not boot, only xp. Then somehow I was able to boot vista again through the boot options at start up. I was happy....he was not... My fiance asked me to just get rid of vista and install my registered xp disk. So I tired to fully format all partitions...said failed..but showed all space as unallocated.... hit enter did another quick format... worked...xp installed. Then none of my HP devices were detected. Since found out that my HP pc is not compatible with xp .

My fiance had the idea to put in my HP recovery disk ,which do not work, as I have tried them before. He did not listen. Said fail to format, like I told him it would.Now their is a black screen.... will not boot anything but Bart Pe. I have changed boot options still no boot...only Bart Pe. When I am in Bart I can still see the original partition I did in the beginning, with HP folders,drivers,apps,etc,no Vista. Cannot run anything from Bart except Bart's programs, which I am not very familiar with.

I am so lost....if anyone can help untangle this mess I will be forever greatful.
I am at the end of my 2nd term and all my finals are due....I really need my desktop pc...

[Murf]

Welcome to CTH

WOW, what a mess. It appears you have unformatted or may a formatted drive with a corrupt Master Boot Record.

You always install the earlier (older) operating system first in the case of XP and VISTA, XP uses the boot.ini file for booting VISTA does not it uses a different file. What happens is the VISTA Master Boot Record gets over written with XP...now you have the problems you were having.

I would load XP by booting get into SETUP (BIOS) and change the boot order to Cdrom as #1. Disable other boot options. Save & Exit and have XP CD in.

Press any key when asked to boot from the CD. Follow screen prompts, you will be able to delete a partition and/or format one to install XP.

If you want to dual boot, after XP is installed/activated/running, then put the VISTA CD/DVD in and follow the screen prompts, always install VISTA on a separate partition then XP.

[RedSamuraiv2]

I will work with you to the best of my abilities on this problem. Ok tell me do you only have a HP system restore disk? and you have changed the book order to the CD first in CMOS or the Bios they are the same thing? If you have a windows XP or Vista CD not the HP restore will they load to the blue screen where you can reformat.