Vista at the end of the day is only an add on for XP in all reality.
No, it most certainly is not. They're both built from the NT kernel, as was Windows 2000, Home Server, Server 2003, and Server 2008. Long story short, XP drivers won't work in Vista any better than 2000 drivers worked in XP.
The problem that I am having is when I try and load the drivers it says 'drivers not intended for this platform,. Now I am aware that Vista home is as far as I know 32 bit as is XP, so the bloody thing should work right?
Again, no. XP was actually available in two separate 64 bit versions (64-bit Edition and x64), and all versions of Vista support both 32 bit and 64 bit architectures (excepting Vista Starter, which isn't available here anyway).
I have checked on a web site about this message that keeps coming up and it may have something to do with Vista rather than a dodgy flash cart. It states that Vista may be experiencing a bad 'Adapti.sys' file in windows within the drivers folder. It states that you can try deleting it but when I tried Vista was not having any of it.
I don't know what adapti.sys is for - are you sure it wasn't atapi.sys? Either way, log in with an administrator account and jump through the User Account Control hoops to make system changes.
Can anyone tell me what colour you slimloader IV shows before you get it working. My just shows a red light. Now if the cart wasnt working I am assuming that it would not light up at all.
I'm not at home, so I can't check. If memory serves it turns green, but maybe that's only when it's writing something..... I'll check it out tonight.