Uninstalling Vista

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I know this is sort of unappropriate to post this here, but there isn't a
"Vista" newsgroup that I know of.

I made the mistake of tripping over my mouth again and telling a friend I
would help them with their new computer. I'm an IT professional and am
really getting tired of people wanting me to work on their machines, but most
of you already know what that's like so I won't go into it.

They've got vista on their machine and want me to put XP SP2 on it. I've
thought of several different approaches, but have very little exposure to
Vista.

Without having done this particular task I'm prepared for things not to go
the way I expect. My first approach is I'm going to try to boot the machine
up with their Windows XP disk. I'm not sure that's going to work.

I'm pretty sure some of you out ther may have already done this and am
trying to take a proactive approach to make sure I have everything I need
before I go over to my friends house. They live 45 miles away.

I'm not sure it's going to be a matter of booting the machine into
 
Penny said:
I know this is sort of unappropriate to post this here, but there isn't a
"Vista" newsgroup that I know of.

I made the mistake of tripping over my mouth again and telling a friend I
would help them with their new computer. I'm an IT professional and am
really getting tired of people wanting me to work on their machines, but
most
of you already know what that's like so I won't go into it.

They've got vista on their machine and want me to put XP SP2 on it. I've
thought of several different approaches, but have very little exposure to
Vista.

Without having done this particular task I'm prepared for things not to go
the way I expect. My first approach is I'm going to try to boot the
machine
up with their Windows XP disk. I'm not sure that's going to work.

I'm pretty sure some of you out ther may have already done this and am
trying to take a proactive approach to make sure I have everything I need
before I go over to my friends house. They live 45 miles away.

I'm not sure it's going to be a matter of booting the machine into
Click to expand...

The only thing to do is format the hard drive and do a clean install of XP.
You'll probably have to go to the computer makers website and see if you can
download drivers for the computer. By the way if you want to post in one of
them there are 10 vista newsgroups. Here's a list.

microsoft.public.windows.vista.administration_accounts_passwords
microsoft.public.windows.vista.file_management
microsoft.public.windows.vista.games
microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware_devices
microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup
microsoft.public.windows.vista.mail
microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance
microsoft.public.windows.vista.print_fax_scan
microsoft.public.windows.vista.security
 
Assuming you have a retail version of XP, set the BIOS to boot from CD as
the first boot device.
Then make sure you have the XP version of the drivers you need for your
motherboard, video
card, sound card, Etc. from the PC manufacture's web site.
You might try Belarc Advisor: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
for help on the driver information you will need while Vista is still on the
PC.

Next: How to do a Clean Install of Windows XP
From Michael Steven's: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
more info: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm
and: http://www.theeldergeek.com/clean_installation_of_windows_xp.htm
also: http://www.bootdisk.com/

JS
 
Are the hard drives IDE or SATA? Installing XP on sata drives is more
tricky than installing on IDE. You may want to know how prior to starting
the install process.
 
Jerry said:
Are the hard drives IDE or SATA? Installing XP on sata drives is more
tricky than installing on IDE. You may want to know how prior to starting
the install process.
Click to expand...

In some cases there is no difference at all, it depends on the motherboard.

Some boards want specific BIOS settings to run both SATA and PATA (which
will be the DVD drive). Without that, the SATA won't be detected, but
otherwise no drivers are needed.

Some systems would require you to load drivers during setup, at the "press
F6 prompt". This usually has to be done via floppy, so a floppy drive has
to be available.

And some boards just don't require you to do anything but plug the drives
in. The SATA drives are detected and XP never asks for drivers.

HTH
-pk
 
Penny said:
I know this is sort of unappropriate to post this here, but there isn't a
"Vista" newsgroup that I know of.

I made the mistake of tripping over my mouth again and telling a friend I
would help them with their new computer. I'm an IT professional and am
really getting tired of people wanting me to work on their machines, but
most
of you already know what that's like so I won't go into it.

They've got vista on their machine and want me to put XP SP2 on it. I've
thought of several different approaches, but have very little exposure to
Vista.

Without having done this particular task I'm prepared for things not to go
the way I expect. My first approach is I'm going to try to boot the
machine
up with their Windows XP disk. I'm not sure that's going to work.

I'm pretty sure some of you out ther may have already done this and am
trying to take a proactive approach to make sure I have everything I need
before I go over to my friends house. They live 45 miles away.

I'm not sure it's going to be a matter of booting the machine into
Click to expand...

Might suggest that you actually completely avoid the dual-boot and other
issues and just take them another new hard disk. Remove the old one, set
it aside, put the new one in and do a clean install to that. It may be
that some day they want to use Vista, and may well not have received
reinstall media. If you wipe the drive, you may prevent them doing that.
I see new 250 gig drives for under CDN$75.

So from there, you need the drive, the XP license, the motherboard drivers,
and then all the hardware drivers. So you need a pretty good description
of the system in order to get those.

Finally, some Vista systems come with Dynamic disks. If you install XP
Home to a new drive, you won't be able to read that Vista disk.

HTH
-pk
 
Penny,
I understand what you mean. Here's what I do. I tell everyone that I
don't support Vista, but I'd be happy to install XP.
Now, Gateway and Dell will not support XP drivers for the machines they
sell with Vista loaded. I simply search the net for the drivers myself.
Burn them to a CD and label them Drivers for each machine. After you
load a box with XP, simply use an Image program (like Ghost, Acronis,
or Image Drive) and package the CD's and tape them inside the computer.
That way when someone brings back the computer for maintenance, you have
the CDs inside ready for your re-image. :)
 
Back
Top