Just a note... DBAN is a bootable free disk eraser. It's a must too if your
discarding an old harddrive

"drumz" <drumz@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1718BE51-4B04-4F2B-B380-E609DA5817D8@microsoft.com...
> I'm planning on formatting the HD on my laptop to install XP on it - not
> happy with Vista. Someone said that Vista still leaves a footprint. Is
> this
> true? And if so, will a third party formatter wipe it clean?
> Thanks,