You should tell us how your computer is laid out. Is Vista on a second
partition or hard drive or did you overwrite XP? Was XP preinstalled by the
manufacturer? Do you have an XP cd or restore cd's or do you restore XP
from a hidden partition?
Thanks, Colin. I just downloaded it from Microsoft website. I don't have
partitions and the XP was pre-installed on my computer when I bought it. (I'm
thinking now that means I overrode XP?) I hope I didn't lose the XP because
the Vista and Defender have really destroyed my programs. Help!
Well... hmmm... without intending to sound callous...
Installing a Beta OS is not a trivial matter. You may have your data files
still, but XP is GONE.
You will need to collect your data files to an external media, like a hard
drive or write to CD/DVD and then you're going to have to reinstall XP. How
you reinstall XP will depend on a number of factors, the details of which
can be found in multiple other threads in this NG.
And for future reference..... Never, never, NEVER, neveR, NeVeR, EVER
install a Beta OS on top of your existing OS unless you are prepared to lose
everything.