Just curious, is the Dell XP CD you received from ebay seller original?
How about just Dual Booting from Vista or XP. Just Enter vista normally and install your XP on your new Drive (1TB). Then throw vista harddisk after that.
Yes the E-bay seller's disk was still in the sealed Dell packet with all the logos on the disk
Dual booting was considered but I didn't want to have a single disk and then a crash, mostly because if I had to return the machine it would no longer be in original condition.
Yes I did consider ripping an "A" drive out of another computer but the kids were stating to get wise to this and wouldn't let me near their computers.
Then again it's the principal of the issue. Neither MS nor Dell should have been the root cause of the problem.
inadequate