Vista - Formatting hard drive?

I'm trying to format my hard drive (Vista Home Premium) so that I can
reinstall Windows XP. However, when I follow the instructions, the 'format'
option is greyed out.

How can I format the hard drive?

Thanks,

Jane

In article <FB62F1E9-54AC-4D63-9197-97F90EF3E988@microsoft.com>, =?Utf-8?B?amFuZTA2MDE=?= <jane0601@discussions.microsoft.com> says...
> I'm trying to format my hard drive (Vista Home Premium) so that I can
> reinstall Windows XP. However, when I follow the instructions, the 'format'
> option is greyed out.
>
> How can I format the hard drive?

Start up with the XP-CD.

--
Met vriendelijke groeten, Jawade. Bootmanager ook voor Vista
Zin in een koffie- thee- of borrelpraatje? Kom naar alt.jawade.nl
http://jawade.nl (Mirror op http://www.geocities.com/kolibrie.geo)
Bootmanager, ClrMBR, DiskEditors, POP3lezer, Filebrowser, Kalender

Look for the make of your hard drive and locate the Disk Manager online, i.e
WD, Seagate, ect. They will have instructions on how to format your hard
drive either though floppy disk or ISO boot CD.


"jane0601" <jane0601@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FB62F1E9-54AC-4D63-9197-97F90EF3E988@microsoft.com...
> I'm trying to format my hard drive (Vista Home Premium) so that I can
> reinstall Windows XP. However, when I follow the instructions, the
> 'format'
> option is greyed out.
>
> How can I format the hard drive?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jane

"jane0601" <jane0601@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
> I'm trying to format my hard drive (Vista Home Premium) so that I can
> reinstall Windows XP. However, when I follow the instructions, the
> 'format'
> option is greyed out.

You can't format drive that has Vista installed on it from within Vista.
Think about it. You couldn't do this in XP either. The proper way to
remove Vista and install XP is boot from the XP installation CD and do a
clean install. It has all the tools needed to partition, format and
install. Here is a link with info on how to do a clean install.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

Well, I thought the fact that the option was there, albeit greyed out (and I
was following the instructions from Vista on how to format the hard drive)
that you *could* format from within Vista! I have done it before on a
previous operating system, but that might have been 98.

I will try with the installation CD. I have heard that there are problems
with trying to do this when downgrading from Vista to XP (and specificially
on Dell machines) so trying to cover all the bases before going ahead



"Rock" wrote:

> "jane0601" <jane0601@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
> > I'm trying to format my hard drive (Vista Home Premium) so that I can
> > reinstall Windows XP. However, when I follow the instructions, the
> > 'format'
> > option is greyed out.
>
> You can't format drive that has Vista installed on it from within Vista.
> Think about it. You couldn't do this in XP either. The proper way to
> remove Vista and install XP is boot from the XP installation CD and do a
> clean install. It has all the tools needed to partition, format and
> install. Here is a link with info on how to do a clean install.
>
> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
>
> --
> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
>
>

Wonder how long before the question is asked how to install Window Vista?
"jane0601" <jane0601@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4636A0A2-7621-4C56-B78A-862503A3F829@microsoft.com...
> Well, I thought the fact that the option was there, albeit greyed out (and
> I
> was following the instructions from Vista on how to format the hard drive)
> that you *could* format from within Vista! I have done it before on a
> previous operating system, but that might have been 98.
>
> I will try with the installation CD. I have heard that there are problems
> with trying to do this when downgrading from Vista to XP (and
> specificially
> on Dell machines) so trying to cover all the bases before going ahead
>
>
>
> "Rock" wrote:
>
>> "jane0601" <jane0601@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
>> > I'm trying to format my hard drive (Vista Home Premium) so that I can
>> > reinstall Windows XP. However, when I follow the instructions, the
>> > 'format'
>> > option is greyed out.
>>
>> You can't format drive that has Vista installed on it from within Vista.
>> Think about it. You couldn't do this in XP either. The proper way to
>> remove Vista and install XP is boot from the XP installation CD and do a
>> clean install. It has all the tools needed to partition, format and
>> install. Here is a link with info on how to do a clean install.
>>
>> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
>>
>> --
>> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
>>
>>

"Charles W Davis" wrote:

> Wonder how long before the question is asked how to install Window Vista?
> "jane0601" <jane0601@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:4636A0A2-7621-4C56-B78A-862503A3F829@microsoft.com...
> > Well, I thought the fact that the option was there, albeit greyed out (and
> > I
> > was following the instructions from Vista on how to format the hard drive)
> > that you *could* format from within Vista! I have done it before on a
> > previous operating system, but that might have been 98.
> >
> > I will try with the installation CD. I have heard that there are problems
> > with trying to do this when downgrading from Vista to XP (and
> > specificially
> > on Dell machines) so trying to cover all the bases before going ahead
> >
> >
> >
> > "Rock" wrote:
> >
> >> "jane0601" <jane0601@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
> >> > I'm trying to format my hard drive (Vista Home Premium) so that I can
> >> > reinstall Windows XP. However, when I follow the instructions, the
> >> > 'format'
> >> > option is greyed out.
> >>
> >> You can't format drive that has Vista installed on it from within Vista.
> >> Think about it. You couldn't do this in XP either. The proper way to
> >> remove Vista and install XP is boot from the XP installation CD and do a
> >> clean install. It has all the tools needed to partition, format and
> >> install. Here is a link with info on how to do a clean install.
> >>
> >> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
> >>
> >> --
> >> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
> >>
> >>
> Rock wrote: "You can't format (a) drive that has Vista installed on it from within Vista". I have a question. I right click on Computer, select Manage, elevate and click on Disk Management. I can then shrink the volume of my C partition (50 GB for the Vista OS) and I can shrink, delete or format my secondary partition (270GB for data storage). I can also change drive letters and paths. Is this not formatting from within Vista? I am not doubting the word of Rock. He undoubtably knows much, much more about computers than I do. I know relatively little about them. Please advise. Thank you.

"CB" <CB@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote

> "Charles W Davis" wrote:
>
>> Wonder how long before the question is asked how to install Window Vista?
>> "jane0601" <jane0601@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:4636A0A2-7621-4C56-B78A-862503A3F829@microsoft.com...
>> > Well, I thought the fact that the option was there, albeit greyed out
>> > (and
>> > I
>> > was following the instructions from Vista on how to format the hard
>> > drive)
>> > that you *could* format from within Vista! I have done it before on a
>> > previous operating system, but that might have been 98.
>> >
>> > I will try with the installation CD. I have heard that there are
>> > problems
>> > with trying to do this when downgrading from Vista to XP (and
>> > specificially
>> > on Dell machines) so trying to cover all the bases before going ahead
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > "Rock" wrote:
>> >
>> >> "jane0601" <jane0601@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
>> >> > I'm trying to format my hard drive (Vista Home Premium) so that I
>> >> > can
>> >> > reinstall Windows XP. However, when I follow the instructions, the
>> >> > 'format'
>> >> > option is greyed out.
>> >>
>> >> You can't format drive that has Vista installed on it from within
>> >> Vista.
>> >> Think about it. You couldn't do this in XP either. The proper way to
>> >> remove Vista and install XP is boot from the XP installation CD and do
>> >> a
>> >> clean install. It has all the tools needed to partition, format and
>> >> install. Here is a link with info on how to do a clean install.
>> >>
>> >> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

>> Rock wrote: "You can't format (a) drive that has Vista installed on it
>> from within Vista".

> I have a question. I right click on Computer, select Manage, elevate and
> click on Disk Management.
> I can then shrink the volume of my C partition (50 GB for the Vista OS)
> and I can shrink,
> delete or format my secondary partition (270GB for data storage). I can
> also change drive
> letters and paths. Is this not formatting from within Vista? I am not
> doubting the word
> of Rock. He undoubtably knows much, much more about computers than I do. I
> know
> relatively little about them. Please advise. Thank you.

What I meant was you cannot format the entire volume on which Vista resides,
i.e. remove Vista, from within Vista. Shrinking it, is not the same. Vista
still remains. The OP wanted to remove Vista. You couldn't do this in XP
either.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]