[Southpaw19]

I am working in a company as an IT Assistant. My very first day and very first problem is this: we have 16 new computers with Vista pre-installed. We have work software that is not compatible with Vista, so we have to "revert" them to XP. Now they did not previously have XP on them, and the computers are not partitioned, nor are they dual-boot machines.

They are just brand new computers with Vista. However, we have tried several options for formatting the hard drive, doing a wipe, or just booting from the WinXP CD-ROM and starting over. None of these options are viable solutions. It is like Vista will not let you "kill it". We tried DBAN, but it looks for a floppy disk with no success (no drive). We tried KillDisk, but that will not work either. Going straight from the WinXP CD-ROM, Vista says it's an older OS and will not let you run the install executable. Booting the PC from the XP CD directly stalls out before getting to any viable menu/options.

Is there any help out there or available option to get these new PCs reformatted so we can install XP from scratch?

Thank you in advance.

[Advertisements]

DBAN should be able to be run from CD without the need for a floppy

To completely erase all data on the drive(s) using Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN)

Download

Readme.txt

Bootable CD version (ISO)
OR
Bootable Floppy/USB Version (EXE - self extracting setup)

Use

Bootable CD

• Burn the DBAN ISO file to a CD.
  NOTE: Keep in mind that this is different than burning a file to a CD. If you do not know how to burn an ISO image, then download CDBurnerXP Pro and install it. Then go Here for instructions for burning the ISO image
• Reboot your PC with the DBAN CD in the CD-ROM drive.
  NOTE:Make sure the PC is set to run from the CD as the primary boot device. You do this by setting your PC to boot to the CD-ROM in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the CD as the first boot device)
• Once you have successfully booted to the DBAN disk, type
  

  Autonuke

• Once the process is completed you may run it again as many times as it takes for you to feel comfortable, but my experience shows that twice is plenty (unless you usually walk around your house in a tinfoil hat so that the government's spies cannot intrude into your thoughts and steal all of your secrets)

Bootable Floppy/USB

• Double click the DBAN EXE file that you just downloaded to execute it
• Choose the drive that you would like to install DBAN on (A: for a Floppy or whatever letter is assigned to your chosen USB device)
• Press Install
• Reboot your PC with the DBAN Floppy in the Floppy drive or your USB device attached to an open USB port.
  NOTE:Make sure the PC is set to run from the Floppy or USB device as the primary boot device. You do this by setting your PC to boot to the Floppy or USB device in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the Floppy or USB device as the first boot device)
• Once you have successfully booted to the DBAN disk, type
  

  Autonuke

• Once the process is completed you may run it again as many times as it takes for you to feel comfortable, but my experience shows that twice is plenty (unless you usually walk around your house in a tinfoil hat so that the government's spies cannot intrude into your thoughts and steal all of your secrets)

IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE TO LABEL YOUR DBAN DISK CLEARLY AS ACCIDENTAL USE WILL BE CATASTROPHIC!

.

[dsenette]

DBAN should be able to be run from CD without the need for a floppy

To completely erase all data on the drive(s) using Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN)

Download

Readme.txt

Bootable CD version (ISO)
OR
Bootable Floppy/USB Version (EXE - self extracting setup)

Use

Bootable CD

• Burn the DBAN ISO file to a CD.
  NOTE: Keep in mind that this is different than burning a file to a CD. If you do not know how to burn an ISO image, then download CDBurnerXP Pro and install it. Then go Here for instructions for burning the ISO image
• Reboot your PC with the DBAN CD in the CD-ROM drive.
  NOTE:Make sure the PC is set to run from the CD as the primary boot device. You do this by setting your PC to boot to the CD-ROM in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the CD as the first boot device)
• Once you have successfully booted to the DBAN disk, type
  

  Autonuke

• Once the process is completed you may run it again as many times as it takes for you to feel comfortable, but my experience shows that twice is plenty (unless you usually walk around your house in a tinfoil hat so that the government's spies cannot intrude into your thoughts and steal all of your secrets)

Bootable Floppy/USB

• Double click the DBAN EXE file that you just downloaded to execute it
• Choose the drive that you would like to install DBAN on (A: for a Floppy or whatever letter is assigned to your chosen USB device)
• Press Install
• Reboot your PC with the DBAN Floppy in the Floppy drive or your USB device attached to an open USB port.
  NOTE:Make sure the PC is set to run from the Floppy or USB device as the primary boot device. You do this by setting your PC to boot to the Floppy or USB device in BIOS (enter bios by pressing f1, f2 or del key during memory count up, then search for boot order, and set the Floppy or USB device as the first boot device)
• Once you have successfully booted to the DBAN disk, type
  

  Autonuke

• Once the process is completed you may run it again as many times as it takes for you to feel comfortable, but my experience shows that twice is plenty (unless you usually walk around your house in a tinfoil hat so that the government's spies cannot intrude into your thoughts and steal all of your secrets)

IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE TO LABEL YOUR DBAN DISK CLEARLY AS ACCIDENTAL USE WILL BE CATASTROPHIC!

.