T400 Clean Install XP

[johnlusf]

I'm thinking people have asked this question, but I am a sort of a newbie in this area and couldn't master the search function (kept ignoring terms 'install' 'xp')

I am contemplating installing XP on my newly arrived T400 because Vista just doesn't do it for me. I looked up some of the guides from other forums and understand that I need to change the SATA mode to Compatibility before I pop in my XP installation CD. Here's my question...

When I go through all those blue screens to where I pick the partition to install, it has 3...
C: Partition 1 (SERVICEv003) [NTFS] 1.5GB
D: Partition 2 (SW_PRELOAD) [NTFS] 140GB
E: Partition 3 (LENOVO) [NTFS] 10GB

How do I proceed to install XP from here? I would like to keep the Service and LENOVO partitions. If I select "D:" it will ask me if I want to install over the previous C:\Windows installation. That doesn't seem like a clean install to me...

So do I delete the D: Partition 2, create a new partition, then install XP on that new partition? Thanks so much!

[postdiction]

I'm thinking people have asked this question, but I am a sort of a newbie in this area and couldn't master the search function (kept ignoring terms 'install' 'xp')

I am contemplating installing XP on my newly arrived T400 because Vista just doesn't do it for me. I looked up some of the guides from other forums and understand that I need to change the SATA mode to Compatibility before I pop in my XP installation CD. Here's my question...

When I go through all those blue screens to where I pick the partition to install, it has 3...
C: Partition 1 (SERVICEv003) [NTFS] 1.5GB
D: Partition 2 (SW_PRELOAD) [NTFS] 140GB
E: Partition 3 (LENOVO) [NTFS] 10GB

How do I proceed to install XP from here? I would like to keep the Service and LENOVO partitions. If I select "D:" it will ask me if I want to install over the previous C:\Windows installation. That doesn't seem like a clean install to me...

So do I delete the D: Partition 2, create a new partition, then install XP on that new partition? Thanks so much!

If you want to install to the D partition, you can delete and create a new one of the same size.

OR if you select to install XP over vista, you will be performing a clean install because, there are is no path from Vista --> XP so all of the XP files will be rewritten and no old files of Vista will be used.

personally, I would delete and create a new partition. It gives me that clean feeling.

I am considering doing this as well and I had 2 questions for you.

1) Did you burn a set of recovery cds?
2) Did you download XP drivers and store them in a separate place?

thanks

postdiction

[johnlusf]

Yes, I am leaning towards deleting the partition and creating a new one.
Regarding 'installing XP over Vista' - I understand that the XP files will overwrite all of the Vista files but what of the other files on the partition? Won't they just stay in place? That kind of defeats the purpose of a 'clean' install.

As to your questions, I did not burn a set of recovery cds... this was another one of my concerns, should the installation of XP fail, my thinking is that the service partition will allow me to restore the hard drive to its factory state.
I did download XP drivers onto my T43 and will probably transfer them via a USB thumbdrive when the installation of XP on the T400 is complete.