I recently bought a used Vista laptop from a company that had formatted the drive for security. They left the Vista Home Premium product Key label on the back. I thought I could install a legal XP Pro, full version operating system for a fresh start.

The XP installation disk does not recognize the laptop's disk.

Must I use a Vista OS installation disk, in order for it to recognize my hard drive, so I can install some kind of operating system ?

Please help. At this point I have a boat anchor for a laptop.

If you have the Vista Product key, you might as well install Vista. This XP driver business can be messy.

Of course. If you could borrow a Vista installation disk, you just drop it in and it will do the rest for you. If you have no immediate access to such a disk, you might even ask the laptop manufacturer to send you one (invent a little story). They usually do it for a S&H charge ($20 last I heard).