Just purchased a new acer q6600 quad.Seems to have vista hidden somewhere on it as vista installed with no dvd. Nifty I guess.I end up with a c and d drive. I am concerned about compatibility issues with games I have. Is it possible to format c and load my xp version instead without affecting the hidden vista/acer setup.Thanks

A preferable solution would be to insert a second hard-drive, install XP on that and make it a dual-boot PC. That way you can test your games in both XP and Vista.RegardsJim

Thanks Jim, for your replyThat's a great idea but I've never done it before. If I add the second drive with nothing on it. Then install xp on it how do I set it up for a dual boot or do I do this in the install process? This would be the best of both worlds.Later

I think that might take a little work. I don't think you can install Win XP as a dual boot on a vista system within the Win XP installer program, because the Win XP install won't understand the Vista boot loaders. I'm thinking you would need to set the new drive as the boot drive in BIOS, then do a stand-alone install of Win XP to that drive, then reset the BIOS back to the vista drive and do some manual work to create the dual boot capability to the win XP drive. There was a tool out called VistaBootPro which allowed for manual set up of dual boot. hopefully there is some one who has actually done this and can verify how to do it.scott s..

I've got both on my PC on separate hard-drives..it was pretty straight-forward. I'll post the instructions tomorrow.RegardsJim

>I've got both on my PC on separate hard-drives..it was pretty>straight-forward. I'll post the instructions tomorrow.>>Regards>>JimWell it almost tomorrow..... 2355hrs.....http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2109434,00.asphttp://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-...11-6157570.htmlRegardsJim

Well, thanks a lot Scott and Jim for the help and advice.I phoned Futureshop about this idea and they didn't like it at all. Said I would have trouble finding xp drivers for my new acer system.Offered though to reinstall my vista os with their 'special tweaks' for $100 takes about 5 hours of work. huh?????????Jim, I'll have a look at those links you added. ThanksFrom what I've read today generally vista is not liked for games and this dual boot idea seems quite popular.Later, Ill be back.