I made a decision. My brand new laptop is worthless, and has been so for over
6 months. I will reformat the hard drive(shread every single thing here on
this laptop) and install XP(luckily I own a copy on CD Rom).
My questions to people here:
Has anybody else done this?
Anyone who knows how to revert a Microsoft OS to an earlier version
has done it at least once.
If so, what advice could you give me in advance
of the hard drive reformat?
As one continues using Windows, and growing in knowledge about his
computer and OS, he learns the various nuances of installing a new OS,
such as the best method of reverting to an earlier file system, or the
knowledge that Windows ME/98SE are the only pre-XP OSes which can use
partitions larger than 2GB, and only XP or greater are the only
post-NT Microsoft OSes which can use NTFS partitions.
Such knowledge is absolutely necessary if he is reverting to an
earlier OS version, and doing it himself..
The BEST way to learn is read first, then actually DO it, mistakes and
all. Apparently, we learn best from our mistakes.
We can (and should) learn all the basics formally, in a proper school,
but such things as the above can only be learned OTJ, or through our
own experiences gained by putting that book-learning to work.
Anyway, it's kind of hard to destroy a piece of hardware, unless one
is truly extremely inept with his hands or an idiot, in which case, I
strongly advise him to take his machine to the local shop and have
them do it, where the work will be done properly and guaranteed.
I do want to assure you, since you have decided to make a clean break
from Vista, not matter the cost to your data, it will actually be very
difficult for you to physically destroy your machine by any software
mistakes you might run into during your reversion to XP. So get your
fear of losing your investment in the laptop out of your mind.
Unless you sit on the thing, or drop it on the floor, it's still gonna
be there if you say, format without first partitioning first, rather
than doing it the correct way, formatting AFTER you partition. All
you will have to do to correct your mistake is do it the RIGHT way
after doing it the WRONG way.
Data (such as a disk format) are, after all, just electrons laid down
in a specific order on magnetic media, and may be dynamically changed
[or exchanged] at any time for different data, for the life of the
magnetic media.
I know I will want IE6, and any advice on how to get that? Maybe I will
have to copy off older computer (one that works - has no Vista on it.)
Not necessary. It is included with Windows XP.
Actually, if your XP install media is an "official" disk, you should
do all the partitioning and formatting from within the XP installation
program. DON'T use pre-XP forms of disk preparation tools, such as
the old command-line utilities. Since the XP install disk is itself
bootable, just stick it in the drive and recycle the power manually.
UNLESS of course, the install media you own was provided by the
manufacturer of the laptop (usually the case). In that case, you
would need a "full oem" copy. The disks provided by the manufacturer
usally are of two kinds:
1) Restore Disks, which ONLY restore the disk for which they were
created to a factory state. These usually include all necessary
hardware drivers [along with a bunch of "crapware"], so a machine
restored with one of these is ready to use when the restoration is
completed. Of course, then you have to remove all crap manually.
2) "Bios-Locked" Disks, which will only install on the machines for
which they were created.
Some manufacturers, such as Dell, provide a third kind:
"Full, but Bios-locked OEM disks", which will install "pre-activated"
only on machines with a Dell Bios, but otherwise will install on any
other Windows-combatible Intel-based machine with user activation
necessary, even ones without an OS of any kind already installed.
There are other manufacturer-provided OEM disks, each having one or
more of the above features in different combinations.
All of them, however, may only be used on the machine(s) for which
they were originally provided if one wishes to honor his user license
from Microsoft [the legality or illegality of which is still up in
the air, since many legal jurisdictions do not accept "shrink-wrap"
licenses as valid, as they do not enable the user to agree or disagree
to them BEFORE the products are purchased.]
Few manufacturers post their EULAs in large-enough type to read, even
when they DO print it [hopefully, prominently] on the outside
packaging [not often, as you probably know.] In Micosoft's case, it
is only readable AFTER the OS is installed.
Personally, if I were planning to do what you describe, I would
purchase a new "generic" FULL OEM copy of XP w/sp2 for $150 [or less]
from Amazon.com, and install "clean" using it.
Then research the hardware device manufacturers for your particular
laptop's devices, and if possible, download the latest drivers from
their websites. You may have to do this before reverting to XP,
especially if your HD controller requires driver installation during
the XP installation.
Usually, the XP installer has the correct specific HD controller
driver already available on the XP installation media [or a compatible
generic controller driver], and will install it before allowing the
user to begin his partitioning/formatting cycle. If not, he will have
to install it himself using the controller installation media provided
by the OEM he obtained the laptop from, or by using a copy of the
driver he'd already downloaded himself.
Just to have something to compare to, I've never had to install
disk-controller software manually in order to install Windows on a new
machine. Not since I started using Microsoft OSes in the mid-80s.
Windows always has and installs the correct driver from the get-go.
Whether this is a normal condition for the majority, I do not know,
but I suspect that it is. However, if the user's HD controller is not
a standard PATA or SATA controller, the chances increase for his
having to install a driver manually before he can continue the
installation of Windows.
Anyway, "weary", I hope I have not increased your weariness.
Just step out and experiment, then do it. There are hundreds of
websites which give excellent step-by-step instructions for installing
[or reinstalling] a Microsoft OS. Just enter "steps install XP" in a
Google search bar [without the quote marks], and you will find many
excellent [and many stupid] methods for installing XP.
This has been done and described so many millions of times [and more
than probably billions of times] it's mostly a non-issue today.
READ ABOUT IT, DO IT, THEN "CLEAN UP", in that order, and you should
have little trouble.
Set apart a weekend, and try it. You may become addicted to it
[especially if you're a guy], as many of us have. It may be a little
frustrating [or lot] at first. But once you've done it several times,
it'll become "old-hat" to you.
Anytime...We always receive a good return when we share the knowledge
we've gained.
Donald McDaniel
