how do i reformat the primary hard drive on my advent 3319 pc?

This sounds like a incompatible driver was installed (with Vista). I think some of your motherboard's hardware is incompatible with Vista. At least without a fresh install, with no old drivers present.

I think you will have to restore the partitions with the recovery CD.

This will put XP back on the computer and it will be usable again.

BTW: If you try Vista again, carefully look up Vista drivers for all of your hardware first (especially the TV card) and then install to a fresh cleanly formated partition. The default drivers it uses will probably work fine until you can find the right ones for any problematic devices.

This is probably the correct Vista driver (32 bit only) for your TV card:

http://www.avermedia.com/avertv/support/Download.a...

To restore XP (from the UKT Support page):

http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/pc/3319.htm

Recovery Disc

Replacement recovery discs can be ordered from a company called "The Tech Guys". More information is available on their website - http://support.thetechguys.com//recoverymedia/

To recover your Advent PC you will need your Advent System Recovery CD.

* Place the CD into the DVD drive and restart your computer.

* Press R on the keyboard when prompted.

* The recovery will load and display a menu of options:

o Non-destructive recovery: this option will restore Windows, supplied applications, and drivers. This option will not destroy your documents or programs. These will be backed up along with the registry. These are restored at the end of the recovery process.

o System Recovery - No format: this will reinstall Windows, supplied applications and drivers. It will move your files to a folder called "My old disk structure". Any applications (except those supplied) will need to be reinstalled.

o System Recovery - Quick format: this option will erase your hard drive including your personal files. Windows, supplied applications and drivers will be reinstalled.

* Select the Non-destructive recovery option and press Next.

* You will be informed about System Restore in Windows, click Yes.

* The recovery will begin. Once this is complete you should eject the CD and click Restart.

Due to the nature of the recovery process you should not use FDISK or any other partition management software to delete the partition on your Advent computer. Doing so will prevent the recovery from functioning correctly. If the recovery asks for a second CD you will need to obtain an Update CD from Advent.

Additional information.

Press the ALT and D keys at the recovery menu to access a command prompt. This will allow access to C: drive. The command prompt will default to E:\i386\system32 where you can run a variety of tools including CHKDSK.EXE.

Pressing CTRL + BACKSPACE at the ‘Press R to display system recovery options’ will display the manufacturers hidden menu. This menu contains a number of tools to delete or recreate the partitions on the hard disk drive.

in case you replica your OS from this force to a diverse force and that truly works it is going to nevertheless have the comparable problems it has now as to the undeniable fact that the blunders are interior the OS registry. the only thank you to do away with the OS and do a sparkling deploy from the CD.

put the windows disc into computer, turn it on then wait and change the settings to boot from cd, then follow on screen instructions