Computer Question
By Eric7990
@Eric7990 (118)
United States
January 2, 2010 1:46pm CST
Now I dont think this will work but I thought I will ask you Myloters for your opinion. I have a laptop that is pretty much crashed and want to reformat it but I dont have the original boot disks because I lost them. And I cant make one because I dont have the right type of disk. The computer originally is Windows XP Home. But my question is, could I use a Vista startup disk and have the computer boot off of that. If that doesnt work could I just use a family members XP boot up disk. Any help is appreciated.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@kaylachan (69676)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
2 Jan 10
If you use the windows Vista start-up disc then you'll b be installing windows Vista. This is fine, but you can't downgrade back to Xp so before using the Vista disc decide if you really want to upgrade to Vista. Otherwise you'll need to find another XP disc.
1 person likes this
@kaylachan (69676)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
2 Jan 10
Vista in itself does require more space. So upgrading that would probably be good. Your processor should be fine, but of course that all depends on what you use it for exactly. If you use it constantly, then you may want to update it, but the one you have should work fine.
@kehl10 (83)
• United States
2 Jan 10
Look its just a reboot CD Back up so if it that is not going to work! If you going to erase the old windows xp and install the vista its the right way, but in my opinion i recomend to to use windows xp not a vista... If u need advice with dodloading any windows for free ;] let me know they are genunies for no cost.. good look!
1 person likes this
@Eric7990 (118)
• United States
2 Jan 10
yea thats all I want to do is erase everything off the computer and start off fresh. I do have the Vista disk which I would like to use that but I am not really sure if the laptop could handle that. The laptop only has a celeron processor and 512 of ram.
@LAMEDRAGON (281)
• Philippines
6 Jan 10
make it a practice to backup your hard disk or make an image of it so that just in case it crashed then all you have to do is restore the back up or the image file...
if you plan to repair your O/S then you should use a pre-activated CD installer of Windows XP..but if you want to totally replace it and format your drive then you can use any OS (XP, VIsta, Win7) installer that you wish to install.
@rosekiss (30414)
• Eugene, Oregon
5 Jan 10
What I did when I bought my computer is to make boot disks, and then put them in a safe place in case I need them, and I have had to refomat my laptop once already, so I am glad I had them. I don't understand why companines don't put boot disks in with the computer? I think that just about all of them decided not to give us boot disks, so it isnt' to hard to make them but I would prefer if they came with the computer to save time. My laptop is Vista, and my desktop is xp and I had to make boot disks for it as well, but I don't use it other than it is my server and the router is connected to it. Take care, and happy mylotting. 
