How do I install Vista Basic

When I try to install Vista it says that my hard drive is not NTFS and it can
not install? What do I do?

Michael wrote:
> When I try to install Vista it says that my hard drive is not NTFS and it can
> not install? What do I do?

Is there an operating system already installed on that hard drive?
If yes, which one?

Yes, Windows Xp home

Michael wrote:
> Yes, Windows Xp home

Hm. Are you trying to upgrade XP or do a fresh install of Vista?
Are you starting the install from inside XP, or by booting the DVD?

Upgrade XP. I tired having windows xp running and running the vista program
to install. It ask me which hard drive but says that my hard drive is not
NTFS so it can not install. So Itry put the cd in my drive and restart my pc
and says that I need to run with windows XP

Michael wrote:
> Upgrade XP. I tired having windows xp running and running the vista program
> to install. It ask me which hard drive but says that my hard drive is not
> NTFS so it can not install.

XP can be installed on FAT32 instead of NTFS, so it is possible that the
installer is correct. If your XP is really installed on FAT32 you can
either shrink your XP partition to make extra room for Vista -- or you
can convert your XP partition from FAT32 to NTFS, and then go ahead with
the upgrade.

Is your XP really installed on a FAT32 filesystem? Right-click on
your C: drive in windows explorer and choose 'Properties'. If you
look around you should be able to find it somewhere.

> So I try put the cd in my drive and restart my pc
> and says that I need to run with windows XP

That is probably because you entered your Vista product key at
the beginning of the upgrade. Vista can tell that your key is only
for upgrade and yes, it will tell you to start from inside XP.
You can install by booting the DVD, but then you must not enter
any key when it asks you for it.

Go here to find out how to convert Fat32 to NTFS (a one way process - it
is built in to XP). Then do your upgrade to Vista

Michael wrote:
> Upgrade XP. I tired having windows xp running and running the vista program
> to install. It ask me which hard drive but says that my hard drive is not
> NTFS so it can not install. So Itry put the cd in my drive and restart my pc
> and says that I need to run with windows XP

here is the link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881

bjr wrote:
> Go here to find out how to convert Fat32 to NTFS (a one way process - it
> is built in to XP). Then do your upgrade to Vista
>
> Michael wrote:
>> Upgrade XP. I tired having windows xp running and running the vista
>> program to install. It ask me which hard drive but says that my hard
>> drive is not NTFS so it can not install. So Itry put the cd in my
>> drive and restart my pc and says that I need to run with windows XP

One thing that article fails to mention is that this will likely result in
512 byte clusters since the partition will not be aligned. This could result
in a serious slow down of the machine. Before converting, read this article
and align the partition first to get the desired 4K clusters:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"bjr" <bj-nospam@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:OLmDJeNaHHA.2448@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> here is the link:
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881
>
> bjr wrote:
>> Go here to find out how to convert Fat32 to NTFS (a one way process - it
>> is built in to XP). Then do your upgrade to Vista
>>
>> Michael wrote:
>>> Upgrade XP. I tired having windows xp running and running the vista
>>> program to install. It ask me which hard drive but says that my hard
>>> drive is not NTFS so it can not install. So Itry put the cd in my drive
>>> and restart my pc and says that I need to run with windows XP