OK just about had enough

[kingkarl1967]

Got myself new Sony Vaio vgn-cs11z in red and want to wipe the hard drive clean and get rid of that recovery partition and all the crap that is pre installed.
I have tried a xp boot disc to try and get rid of partition but it just stops with error saying check hard drive is configured.
What is the procedure for this lads and lasses as I am pulling my hair out , and how do I get just vista and all the drivers installed with these recovery discs I made ?
Also looked at the discs and get understand how to get seperate apps from the dics as they are not in pac file format either.
Will return this to store after bank holiday if there is no way to have a clean system and buy another make that supply the correct discs so mad.

[Blencogo]

Try Google for 'Installing XP on a SATA hard drive'.

With Vista you cannot have a complete clean install unless you buy a retail copy of Vista.

Also with Vista once you change the OS you lose all the application software and it cannot be installed as the .pac format is no more - it is all or nothing.

Uninstalling what you don't want from the Sony install is the only way to keep exactly what you do want. Sony's view is that you have bought the Sony OEM version of Vista only - that does not license you for any other version.

[kingkarl1967]

Hi Blencogo

Think you mis understood what I am attempting to do here mate , Its a new laptop that came with Vista 32 home premium pre installed not XP.
What I was trying to do was get rid off that 9gb recovery partition and just have the one C: drive nice and clean without all these pre installed programs.
I have managed to create 2 recovery DVDs first and then used the built in program DISKPART to remove the partition and then expand the C: drive to use the extra space all done perfect.
Now what I need to do mate is just install vista again from the recovery DVDs I made and all the drivers without all the junk programs that will surely be on the DVDs I created.
How do I manage this mate without the discs creating that partition again and installing the system back to when I bought it as this aint what I want.
Thanks Mate.