Hello,

I've been given a tower that has vista installed on it. It's QUITE a FAST computer with 2Gb of ram. The person who GAVE it to me only knew the password of one of the users and I can't access the admin profile.

Ideally I want to flatten the drive and install XP PRO on it instead, as I plan to use the computer for audio/music making software only, absolutely nothing else. It'll be perfect for that as my software and music hardware works best with XP. It's also far more powerful than the software requires.

Could someone please tell me how I can access the drive and format/flatten it , either through the BIOS on in windows - if it's at all possible..? Baring in mind I can't log on as admin.

I only have basic PC knowledge and would need quite a simple, step-by-step guide.

Thanks for any help y'all can GIVE me.Boot to the XP CD and format it from setup.Thanks for that.

Do I need to interrupt normal set up and change the boot settings in BIOS to achieve that?In the bios you need to make the optical drive the first device in the boot order. Save the changes and exit bios.Great, thank you.

Gonna try that now...On behalf of BC Programmer and CH Forums, you're welcome

BTW, make sure you have all of the necessary XP drivers for your system (including the chipset driver).