XP Clean install can't wipe Vista partition

[Guest]

Help. I have a 160gb hdd in a system which was only running Vista. I decided
to wipe and clean install XP, but when XP gets to its partitioning screen, it
sees a 24mb MBR volume and then a 'disc' with no drive on it. I cannot do
anything to partition the free space on the drive.

I have tried going through Vista setup and deleting the partition, which it
claims it did, but XP still can't see the disc. I have also tried fixmbr with
no luck.

I'm sure this is a relatively easy fix, but I'm not sure what else to try.

 

[Jane C]

Is the hard drive an IDE or SATA? Do you need to provide SATA controller
drivers at setup?

 

[Len Mattix]

Get mfg's utility software, run it, have it right all zeros to the drive,
done.

 

[Guest]

Doh. Good call, I thought it was IDE (its a standard Dell box a couple years
old), but your box made me look inside and it turns out to be SATA.

 

[Chad Harris]

1) Why not just download a format tool onto another compupter and transfer
it with a thumb driver and since you probably don't have access to what they
called back in the 1800's an A:\Drive and a floppy disc just burn it to
media (CD/DVD)

There are any number of utilities that format including some from MSFT the
past few years, but

You could use these from Boot Disc or Dell and they should clean that
disc: (I do see the number Win 98 in the link and it should work)

Clean Slate 1.0 Partition/MBR Formatter/ Backup/Cleaner Tool

http://www.bootdisk.com/canada/slate10.zip

or from Dell (it doesn't matter whether your box is Dell or not to use
this)--use another PC and download it and transfer with a thumb driver or
burn it to media (CD/DVD):

From Dell:

2) Why don't you download this from some box, transfer to thumb or burn and
format it on the PC you're trying to format using the disc?

How Do I Quick Format My Hard Drive
http://support.dell.com/support/top...04A74957845DB9AE6987846286E1B&c=us&l=en&s=dhs
Download A Boot Disk Containing The Format Command

http://support.dell.com/support/top...A74957845DB9AE6987846286E1B&c=us&l=en&s=dhs#1

CH