Acer Aspire 5100 / Delete Vista add XP SP3

Hello,

I am having a problem deleting Vista on my companies laptop, when I put in my OEM XP SP3 disc I am getting an error message, there is already an updated version of windows installed with no options, do I need a partion disc to help me? what brand & model # of this disc do I need, are there any other ways to accomplish complete deletion of VISTA & install XP SP3? Please advise.

Thanks,
BT60

 

Grrr

I assume your company is ok with you deleting the OS on your company laptop (I would have had you on a written warning for endangering IT security but then I am known to be unreasonable . . .

Do you need to be able to restore it to it's original state . . if so how you plan to do this ? Full disk image, exchange HDD or hope no-one notices ?


Is your XP disk
1) an OEM licenced full clean install disk (as used to be supplied to system builders and hobbists - effectively a Retail disk & limited license)
2) A recovery disk from an OEM PC maker with system specific apps, drivers, logos, wallpaper etc added
(These are totally different things and if the former you will definitely need to get F6 AHCI drivers etc onto a slipstreamed XPSP3 disk or select IDE/legacy mode in the bios to make it see the HDD and install at all. The same will apply to some earlier versions of OEM PC maker disks too )

 

Hello,

I have been given this laptop from my company for my sole ownership, Vista blows & will not accept my Land desktop CADD software & engineering drawings, no need for the federal government to step in!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, I have a full OEM XP SP3 licensed version (YES RETAIL) brand new just itching to jump inside of my Aspire. How will I accomplish removing VISTA BLOWS from this laptop & get my eager XP SP3 operating sytem (The Best) in this laptop!!!!.

Thanks,

BT60

 

Yep, Used to be responsible for about 100 sales people who destroyed or messed up a laptop about every 3 days on average . .

Anyway

Biggest issue on this will be dealing with the AHCI drivers needed to make the OS 'see' the HDD while the BIOS is set to AHCI mode.

If you can set the bios to use IDE mode (and stay there) you can just use that mode - - performance impact is 1 or 2 %. Otherwise you need to download n-lite or similar to merge the AHCI drivers and the windows disk and make an install disk that will work with SATA/AHCI ( OEM SATA Drivers - Windows XP Community - XPHeads)

when you are ready to start you can use a partition manager or similar to delete the entire disk contents although you might choose this moment to upgrade the HDD and start afresh with a bigger HDD than the original one