Downgrading from Vista to XP on Laptops.

[Guest]

I would like to remove Vista and install XP on my laptop. It came with
Vista. How can I go about doing this?

 

[Guest]

My recomendation is to purchase a new hard drive for
your laptop computer and install it after removing the
original hard drive. Then boot from the Windows XP
installation CD, create a partition, format the partition,
then proceed with the installation. Next, visit the support
web site of the manufacturer of you laptop and download
any available hardware drivers, such as video adapter, audio,
keyboard, etc.

If you are then unsatisfied with Windows XP, then you
can simply remove the Windows XP hard drive and reinstall
the Windows Vista hard drive.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

 

[Paul Randall]

I agree with Carey's post. But first, go to the manufacturer's web site and
see if there are WXP drivers. What financial incentive is there for a
laptop mfg to provide drivers for previous OSs? If not, before you buy the
hard drive, think about whether it is worth while to even try to install XP.
If you like playing around with this kind of stuff, you might be able to
make a list of all the hardware on your system for which your laptop mfg
has Vista drivers and see if you can find XP drivers elsewhere, like various
motherboard mfg's websites. Even without drivers, WXP may do all you want
from it with the generic drivers built into WXP and the BIOS in your system.

-Paul Randall

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

My recomendation is to purchase a new hard drive for
your laptop computer and install it after removing the
original hard drive. Then boot from the Windows XP
installation CD, create a partition, format the partition,
then proceed with the installation. Next, visit the support
web site of the manufacturer of you laptop and download
any available hardware drivers, such as video adapter, audio,
keyboard, etc.

If you are then unsatisfied with Windows XP, then you
can simply remove the Windows XP hard drive and reinstall
the Windows Vista hard drive.

It would be much easier to clone the drive onto external USB drive with
TrueImage if he wanted to do something like that. Changing the hard drive
most laptops is not trivial for the average user.

ss.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I would like to remove Vista and install XP on my laptop. It came with
Vista. How can I go about doing this?

There is no way to downgrade. Simply clean install Windows XP the
normal way.

Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when
prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

Two additional points to be noted:

1. Make sure that you have all the XP drivers needed for your hardware
(check the manufacturer's web site) before starting.

2. Clean installation means the loss of everything on the drive, so if
there's any data you need to keep, back it up to external media first.

 

[Lang Murphy]

I would like to remove Vista and install XP on my laptop. It came with
Vista. How can I go about doing this?

As others have pointed out... ensure there are XP drivers for your laptop
and all its onboard devices before proceeding with installing XP. Some new
PC's have hardware for which XP drivers are not, or ever will be, available.

Lang

 

[jimmy-jo bob]

I would like to remove Vista and install XP on my laptop. It came with
Vista. How can I go about doing this?

I just sucessfully did this with my toshiba satelite, First go through your
device manager and list all the hardware manufacture's you have. You may have
to take the back of the laptop off and get model and serial #'s for sound and
audio, modem, touchpad ect. You'll need all this so you can go to the
manufacture's web sites for all the drivers, Windows Xp didnot have them for
mine, Toshiba was no help nor Microsort. Your own your own. Remove vista,
take out the partition, Install XP thats for a new computer. My Computer Tek
did it in about 3 hours