Installing Vista w/o formatting?

[TheKingOfHearts]

ok this is the thing im confused about

i have a large 160 gig drive which is split into 2 equal partitions

one is the one my previous windows is and is now clean
and ready for instal of Vista

i have some data i dont want to backup which is movies and like another 80 gigs of junk

and basically can i not format my entire drive for stupid Vista?

i read http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=279311

but i really dont wanna risk it like that...so does anyone know?
one partition is NTFS the other is FAT32

[bubzuru]

ok this is the thing im confused about

i have a large 160 gig drive which is split into 2 equal partitions

one is the one my previous windows is and is now clean
and ready for instal of Vista

i have some data i dont want to backup which is movies and like another 80 gigs of junk

and basically can i not format my entire drive for stupid Vista?

i read http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=279311

but i really dont wanna risk it like that...so does anyone know?
one partition is NTFS the other is FAT32

if you already have two portions you should
just be able to boot from the vista disk and install
it to one ov them

[TheKingOfHearts]

no man...not that...read my post again

[computathug]

ypu could try partician magic or similar and format the hd, and partician the hd to what ever size you want then install vista. im not sure about vista as i have never used it and have no intentions of just yet, but if it similar in sorts to xp then format the drive using ntfs

[TheKingOfHearts]

i dont need any other partitions

i just want Vista not to format when it installs

XP does that and i believe so does 2000

[bad_brain]

hmmm...are you sure? as far as I remember you have the option not to format the partition in the XP install procedure...

[F4LSE]

id rethink getting vista first. its just my opinion but its realy too early to be using it. last i heard was if u used a certain cursor u had a major vulnerability.

im sure its nice in some ways..... but just not for me.
id keep and extra partition of xp too.

[FaoX]

I agree with him. Vista is nice and flashing but until they finish tweaking it a bit its a lost cause. If you can get it installed and working with all your software and drivers more power to ya, but in nearly all cases I've run into that is not the case. Like he said though this is an opinion statement not and order.

[Oppconsulting]

What is it with everyone and the new and greatest toys updates etc I just love laughing at my x no longer Tech friend who was the same way he had to try vista greatly regretted it he always updates and almost always finds a new update to crash his PC but anyway I have posted it enough you all are not listening so like me in my early days enjoy loosing data and reformatting often etc its coming by the truckload when you least want and expect it with that kind of stuff I have run stable xp and other systems my way for over 10 years only time mine crashes is a bad board electrical or my dumb ass did it but then again I also run Pentium 2 400 and pent 3 933 etc my newest two PCs a amd athlon 3000 and a celeron prescot d dual core series 2.9 are both blown so I run old systems that don't blow up so easily or till I feel like getting parts if ever

[computathug]

k guys what he wants to do is totaly clean the disc back to its original state if i am correct. check what type of hd you are using then go to there website and download there disc wizards. You can also use kill disc but is not recommended unless you can write the boot secter back to the drive yourself. hope these help and if im on the right lines send me a pm and i will guide you through the processes or optionally if you post the name of the hdd i will tell you the steps to setting it back to its original state and post the links to the software needed and then you should be able to do the rest youself.

[Oppconsulting]

ok well if thats all well sorry I have been up for two days and can be a ass after that plus I get tired of dead vista subjects comming up all the time not that its been coverd or anything just the whols vista has been coverd etc and its nuts and your own risk to use in my eyes but anyway trying to restore with two partitions is very easy with xp just run the xp disk no mater the os pick the partition and your off also pick leave file system intack if like he said wants to save files etc this hard disk im on has 3 win xp installs on it from the amd that crashed so many times and now this intell each time just said like I have done on customer pcs leave files intac And again sorry remove it if you want since I cannot remove my own posts or whatever have a good one