Downgrading from vista to xp

[dragon@dragon64]

Hi i am trying to downgrade from Vista to Xp, and when i try to format the hard disk with the xp disk, i get an error stating no hard disk is available.

[alc6379]

What kind of hard drive are you trying to install on? You probably need to load the Drivers for your hard drive controller at the F6 screen during the XP install.

[dragon@dragon64]

the hard drive is that of an hp laptop.

[dragon@dragon64]

sorry the laptop is hp530

[dragon@dragon64]

What kind of hard drive are you trying to install on? You probably need to load the Drivers for your hard drive controller at the F6 screen during the XP install.

hi alex do you know from where i can acquire the drivers for my hard drive controller? would i need to put the drivers on a floppy disk?

[SOYE]

HI,
i dont think you can downgrad from vista using win xp as win vista is a stronger os than win xp.
some of the vista drivers will still be on the hard disk and will not allow win xp to run.formating and deleting partition in windows do not remove this drivers.
you will need a third party software like acronics disk director suite or partition magic to wipe the disk of all data.
you will have to slave the disk on another system and install any of the above application on this system then use the application to wipe the disk
i hope this will help
thanks

[thePhoenix9]

surely you would need to delete vista, then put the disk in?
or are you trying to do a dual-boot pc?

[Comodore]

Its a pretty bad idea to change the OS of any laptop, particularly those that are newer. Older ones converting to linux and such is okay, and *maybe* an upgrade install, but other than that, its always the best course of action to stay with whichever OS shipped with the machine. This is mainly because of drivers- I reinstalled a copy of windows XP on my machine (doing a repair install) and I was missing the drivers for my NIC cards! I couldn't access the internet!

Now, if you're willing to hunt down every driver for every component- particularly anything proprietary- then you *can* downgrade.

But its not a very good idea. Vista is the future of Windows, like it or not. It has its problems (particularly, for some reason, on laptops) but so did XP when it came out, and 2000 when it came out, and so on. Its a hungry OS, but if you feed it, it will treat you well.

If you have your heart set that much on downgrading, you'll need to reformat the C: drive- and other drives, too, would be a good idea-(using some third party- linux?- boot CD (the UBCD www.ubcd4win.com has Derek's Boot and Nuke which will do the job. Since you already presumably have a windows XP CD on hand, you can easily create the disk. Its very useful to have on hand! Check it out.))

Once that's done, you have an empty computer with some BIOS. Pop in your XP CD and let the proprietary/driver problems commence! (Also, I think that *might* void your warranty?)

Good luck, and I hope you find it in your heart to forgive Vista and give it a chance at life :)

Post back with questions- I wish they'd set up some system where users can create their own tutorials. I'd have one for the UBCD and one for my recommended security setup for each OS :)

All the best,

--The Comodore

[dragon@dragon64]

I have sorted the issue at last with some help from an Hp technician
Here is what i did
Please launch the BIOS by pressing F10 on HP logo screen while powering ON the notebook.

Went to the BIOS, selected System Configuration, Device Configurations and disabled the 'SATA Native Mode'.

Then i was able to install the Windows XP, and did not get the disk controller error message.

Thank you all

[BeeBee59]

Its a pretty bad idea to change the OS of any laptop, particularly those that are newer. Older ones converting to linux and such is okay, and *maybe* an upgrade install, but other than that, its always the best course of action to stay with whichever OS shipped with the machine. This is mainly because of drivers- I reinstalled a copy of windows XP on my machine (doing a repair install) and I was missing the drivers for my NIC cards! I couldn't access the internet!
Funny i did that and never had any problems...so its more than possible to down grade...people did it from XP to 98 with no problems and the nic drivers can be gotten on the internet...been there done that too

[dragon@dragon64]

Its a pretty bad idea to change the OS of any laptop, particularly those that are newer. Older ones converting to linux and such is okay, and *maybe* an upgrade install, but other than that, its always the best course of action to stay with whichever OS shipped with the machine. This is mainly because of drivers- I reinstalled a copy of windows XP on my machine (doing a repair install) and I was missing the drivers for my NIC cards! I couldn't access the internet!

Now, if you're willing to hunt down every driver for every component- particularly anything proprietary- then you *can* downgrade.

But its not a very good idea. Vista is the future of Windows, like it or not. It has its problems (particularly, for some reason, on laptops) but so did XP when it came out, and 2000 when it came out, and so on. Its a hungry OS, but if you feed it, it will treat you well.

If you have your heart set that much on downgrading, you'll need to reformat the C: drive- and other drives, too, would be a good idea-(using some third party- linux?- boot CD (the UBCD www.ubcd4win.com has Derek's Boot and Nuke which will do the job. Since you already presumably have a windows XP CD on hand, you can easily create the disk. Its very useful to have on hand! Check it out.))

Once that's done, you have an empty computer with some BIOS. Pop in your XP CD and let the proprietary/driver problems commence! (Also, I think that *might* void your warranty?)

Good luck, and I hope you find it in your heart to forgive Vista and give it a chance at life :)

Post back with questions- I wish they'd set up some system where users can create their own tutorials. I'd have one for the UBCD and one for my recommended security setup for each OS :)

All the best,

--The Comodore

Thank you for your comments.

[poeg]

Its easy to do, worked the last 60 or so times I did it for my clients the last one being yesterday and only requires that you grab your hardware IDs from the device manager. Change the SATA to an ata compatable setting or if your bios is that restrictive as to not afford you such snaggle an XP with the SATA drivers slipstreamed in already or roll your own. The only prob I've seen was having to install in order the Microsoft UAA then the high def audio drivers followed by the modem drivers.

European support sites were the first to have the XP drivers for most new books so that's where I still go for a lot of them. I've posted on NotebookForums exactly how to do this with the Asus FR5 and the Gateway MT3814 but there are a lot of other walk-throughs there as well.

As for those questioning "why?", the answer is simple. Some of us have proprietary software we use to generate wealth and would like to continue doing such rather than losing thousands of man hours to MS's latest cash cow. One of my first clients to get hands on Vista, after having a wild weekend trying to get Pervasive to not lock up tagged is as Windows Me 2.0

Oh and for the Vista is the future people, some of us heard about about Windows 7 and XP support until 2014 way before it turned up on blogs and it wasn't anything MS volunteered. Hell if you look close enough, the muzzle impression is still on Mr Bill's temple.