Downgrading from Vista to XP on a Toshiba

Downgrading from Vista to XP on a Toshiba A135 S4527

I downgraded to XP because:

Vista changed menus for no reason. e.g. they removed "Add/remove programs".
Vista does not network with XP unless you add software to XP machines.
Vista goes into hibernation mode while downloading from Usenet (ie quits downloading).
Vista is slow and bloated. One gig! of ram is barely enough to run Vista.


Experiences while downgrading:

Booted using Gparted CD (a Linux utility) to partition my drive into two drives.
Used Gparted to copy one partition to other for backup.
Machine refused to boot (black screen of death).
Booted to XP from a Bart PE disk. Ran "chkdsk /f c:"
Rebooted from hard drive. It now worked and started up in Vista.
Tried to install XP in one of the Vista partitions. Some files would not copy.
XP failed to install because Vista locks these files. Probably deliberate MS BS.
Used Gparted to delete screwed up partition & create new blank partition.
Installed XP just fine.
Found Toshiba drivers on the Internet. Modem driver would not work. Finally found
a newer driver.
XP works beautifully. Setting up networking was trivial.

A one hour job turned into a 12 hour nightmare because of Microsoft.

 

Glad you got it working, but honestly none of those things you mentioned sounds like real problems except for needing more than 1GB-but we've known you need 2GB for about a year now (and power users need that much in XP too, and it's cheap anyway).

I mean thinks like the hibernation mode you should be able to turn off.

 

i downgraded too back to XP ... I just could not take it any more. Even running with XPS M170 7800 Gtx 2 GB ram ... vista was a dog on my notebook. Much happier with XP again ... I forgot how much I missed XP

 

I think there is a pattern here. Once you move a machine to Vista, it is difficult to move it back to XP. The other thing is that Vista doesn't network well with XP machines. Together this is almost makes Vista into a virus or Trojan horse - install Vista on one machine to check it out, and suddenly you can't get rid of it and go back to XP. Then you find out your LAN doesn't work anymore, so you have to upgrade all your machines to Vista. This is the dirtiest sneakiest marketing plan I have ever seen. Thanks Microsoft. We won't forget it.

 

99.9% Toshiba Satellite A215-S7472 downgrade and/or restore for Windows XP Professional
On boot I still get Found New Hardware and cannot locate driver, device is listed a UNKNOWN in Found New Hardware, BUT Device Manager does NOT show any missing/unknown devices.

I did a restore of my old dead system, not a reinstall of XP. Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery include Recover Anyware that allows restore to dissimilar hardware (only costs slightly more than Ghost and is much more robust).

Drivers

http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool/index.php for Modder program to modify ATI display driver

7-12_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_55811.exe ATI_mobility_radeon_HD_2400 ATI driver package to use (from ATI site) Be wary of display driver updates from any source as such updates may make your system unstable/unusable—make backup before install.

http://tinyurl.com/2buwss for Atheros AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter Driver 6.0.2.75

Bluetooth Monitor: util_bt_monitor_25884A.exe???

http://tinyurl.com/2mc8nq for Toshiba drivers (only use those that include XP) and the bios upgrade.

http://tinyurl.com/3chr5t for StandardDualChannel_PCI_IDE_Controller

http://tinyurl.com/33a94x for REALTEK_HighDefinitionAudioDriver1.84