fz290 have vista ultimate. want to install xp PRO. need help

alright. most of the threads i have browsed have included people having problems with upgrading or doing anykind of OS install. For Software reasons not capable of running on vista i need to install xp pro. i have a retail version but when i go through the windows setup after restarting it says unable to detect hard drive. any advice would be helpfull before jumping into this project which is bound to be a nightmare.

thanks in advance
-Kirt

 

What kind of HDD do you have?

Have you looked in the BIOS for a hard disk "compatibility" option?

 

Search is your friend! Go to the top of the page here and in the search box type "FZ XP" without the quotes. (Do NOT use either of the drop down search boxes they do not allow two character word searches.)

You will find some threads already about doing an XP install on an FZ model.

Two things you need to think about.

#1 Under XP there are issues with no power management and no function keys and there were a couple of driver still unavailable, I believe. (The threads will give you specifics.)

#2 Have you considered using VirtualPC 2007 under Vista and installing XP on a virtual machine. I use XP every day using a virtual machine under Vista. I needed to do so because some of my development tools were not compatible with Vista yet. This is a GREAT option unless you are running some really graphics intensive or cpu intensive apps. But most XP things run great in a virtual machine.


Gary

 

Model Number: R1NBFA07-LBOM

VGN-FZ290 Configure-to-Order

Customization Details

Keyboard (Black)
WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n w/Integrated Bluetooth®
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GT
LCD 15.4" WXGA (XBRITE-HiColor™)
SuperMulti DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
120GB SATA Hard Disk Drive
2 GB DDR-SDRAM (DDR2-667, 1 GBx2)
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7250 (2.0GHz)
Norton 360™ All-In-One Security (60 Day Trial)
QuickBooks Simple Start
Video Standard
Photo Standard
Microsoft Works
Engraving
Extended Battery (BPL8) [$100 savings included]

thats the order info off the sony site.

just like others i have roughly 8gb of a hidden partition labeled EISA configuration that i cannot access or change. now it says that it has 100 percent free space. so how can i get a backup on that or i might as well just delete it and do some DVD restore disks before i choose to do this install

 

Sony FZ series machines and some others have virtually no BIOS settings, sigh.

Gary

 

gary,

most of the xp problems are just driver and other issues related to making a Current XP machine XP or upgrading to vista. i kinda need to downgrade. and the XP wont even acknoledge a hard drive upon windows setup. i havent even gotten to the drivers mess that i have read about.

also. thanks for the advice on the running the virtual machine. i will look into that. i use something like that for my mac and completely forgot about it. but sadly this computer is going to be running some 3d rendering software so not sure how that will work out. but it might be worth a try if this cannot get figured out soon.

 

No, the driver issues I am talking about are relative to a XP install on the FZ machine. Sony initially did not support XP at all on FZ models. Latter they relented a bit and released some drivers, maybe all of them I don't know for sure that's why I directed you to the existing threads on this topic. There is a wealth of information there including the issue you are having with the hard drive. The problem is the hard drive is SATA, and XP needs the SATA drivers to even find the hard drive. But that's not the ONLY issue you have. Once you have the drivers, XP installers expect the drivers to be on a floppy and you have no floppy drive. SO you will need to slipstream the drivers into an XP installer. Again, refer to the other threads for the details. Even with all of that you still will not have power management or function keys.

Not going to work for you I am afraid. 3d rendering taxes the machine quite a bit, I don't think you'll be happy with it under a Virtual machine, even when it is running full screen (where it gains control of most of the CPU and Graphics). But if you care to try it, and you use Virtual PC 2007 make SURE you install the VPC additions in XP after you have it installed. That is VERY important for graphics and networking.

Gary