I HAVE A SONY VAIO AR11M LAPTOP WITH 160GB HARD DISK WHICH IS PRE PARTITIONED BY SONY AT 80GB EACH. THE PROBLEM IM FACING IS THAT I WANT TO INSTALL A CLEAN VERSION OF WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL WITHOUT RECOVERING THE SYSTEM SO THAT I DONT GET THE PRE INSTALLED SOFTWARES SONY HAS IN SYSTEM RECOVERY BECAUSE THAT REALLY SLOWS DOWN THE SYSTEM. I HAVE TRIED INSTALLING A LOT OF TIMES BUT ALWAYS WHEN THE INSTALLER GETS TO THE POINT WHERE I AM SUPPOSED TO SELECT THE PARTITION TO INSTALL THE OS, IT JUST SIMPLY SAYS THERE ARE NO HARD DISKS INSTALLED IN THE SYSTEM. I HAVE TRIED FORMATTING IT BUT I CANT BECAUSE IT SAYS THAT HARD DISK IS IN USE ALTHOUGH ITS NOT. SOMEHOW WHAT I THINK IS THAT SONY HAS LOCKED THE HARD DISKS FROM BEING FORMATTED OR SOMETHING CUZ I CANT SEE THE HARD DISKS IN THE BIOS SETTINGS AS WELL. LIKE IT SHOWS A 160GB HARD DISK INSTALLED BUT I CANT ALTER IT OR ANYTHING. IM NOT VERY FAMILIAR WITH THE CORRECT TERMS AND EVERYTHING SO PLEASE IGNORE THE NOOBNESS. THANKS A LOT
