have vista - thinking of changing to xp

was not sure to ask this on vista or xp.

i have tried to sort out this problem before at another forum, which i think some people here have helped.

i have a toshiba laptop - sat pro a210 a20gb, 2 gb ram, vista (32) home premium, amd athlon x2.

i think its fairly certain that there are corrupt or missing windows files.

i'm also sure i used the dvd making facility to create a disc when the laptop was new. if i did not and was supplied a disc with the machine.
either way i can't find any disc at home that belongs to the laptop.

i have a few xp and vista machines here and just to try, got a vista disc and put it in the drive, hoping it would offer me the option to repair, just like xp. not so.

now i'm wondering if i should maybe replace vista with xp.

a friend suggested i could put xp on virtually. i don't know what this is exactly or how to do it, or even if it would be a good idea.

so to sumarize my question.

should i:
1. remove vista for xp
2. install vista again
3. virtually install xp
4. try and repair vista again
5. something else.

 

Forget no 3 - it doesn't exist.

If you were happy with Vista, why go back to XP? - a new install of either will cost you money.

Also, I guess attempting to access the recovery partition as per this thread didn't work?

Toshiba Support Forums: Satellite Pro A210 - How to recover it ...

I'd post the errors you have when attempting to repair Vista.

Also bear in mind that a borrowed Vista DVD won't always work. There are variations, 64 bit, 32 bit, manufacturer specific, OEM and Retail. Some are the same DVD, just rebranded, some are not.

I've run into similar problems myself.

 

As Hatsoff has suggested, first off check to see if your recovery partition is their, in the start menu search box type DISKMGMT.MSC and hit return, and you should get a window open like this

http://computerhelpforums.net/attac...on-problem-please-help-when-i-right-click.jpg

check to see if there is an EISA partition of around 10G, if so then you have a recovery partition and you should be able to recover your laptop as in the link Hatsoff has given if not let us know and we will take it from there,

 

I bookmarked this site, Thank you for good job

 

vista us much better than the XP i am using vista i am so much happy

 

Vista over XP anyday for me.
Yes Vista has its flaws, but no where near as many as XP or Windows 7.

If you did not get a disk with your PC/Laptop saying along the lines of 'recovery CD/DVD'
Then it will be on a partition on your HDD - when you boot the PC it should either be an option or an F key to initialise it.