Fake XP Pro to Original XP Home Edition

Guys,

Need help. My brother recently bought a Compaq Notebook for my dad. The one that comes without an OS and installed a fake/pirated XP Pro. I bought my father an original XP Home Edition license with the intention to install it myself.

Restart the computer, boot it from CD, it when into the 'blue setup screen', ran for a few good mins, and then BSOD screen greets me.

I've tried restarting, schedule and run chkdsk, install it from windows as well as trying to format c from 'safe mode with command prompt' option. All attempt failed.

Any advice other method. I tried not to send it back to the seller as I want to learn and DIY it myself, if there is any other method.

Please help. Thanks

 

If there is currently an illegal version or a botched legal install on it, why not erase the whole hard drive with something like free Active@KillDisk and then install the legal XP version.
Then you can tell your dad, he can be sure nothing dangerous (rootkit, trojan etc) resides on his notebook.
Download the free version of Active@KillDisk, follow the instructions on their site on how to burn the program to CD, boot from CD, go make some coffee and when it's finished, install XP and make your dad happy .
Cheers.

 

thanks for the prompt reply Baserk. I'll try it out!

 

If Active@KillDisk doesn't work for you, you can actually use the XP CD to delete/create/format partitions.

Press D to delete the old partitions, then press C to create the new ones.

Then choose full format instead of quick.

 

The OP has covered those steps and wanted to install a genuine XP on that laptop (which would overwrite the existing files to begin with)
Trouble is he encountered a BSOD during the initial setup.

The possible reason on why this is happening could be because the AHCI (SATA) is enabled in BIOS.
If you have a SATA hard drive, chances are, a regular XP won't install.
What you can do is open up the BIOS and disable AHCI.
Then install XP, download and install all of the updates for it and finally install the SATA drivers.

But it would be my personal recommendation that you download and slipstream both SP2 and SP3 along with SATA drivers onto your XP Home CD.
That way you will install everything in one go (and you won't have to disable the AHCI in BIOS).

The only thing you have to do is find out the chipset inside your laptop.
Once you've done that, go to the chipset's manufacturer's website and download the SATA drivers.

 

Actually, if it were a SATA issue Windows returns a no-HDD error, NOT a BSoD.

You should use some formatting software(as recommended) and maybe use nlite to apply all the latest updates to your Windows XP Home disc to increase stability and decrease total install + setting up time.

 

It could be that the hard drive itself is dead.

Anyways, I would try contacting whoever sold you that notebook and request a refund.

 

BSOD's also have a tendency of appearing in the case of missing SATA drivers.
People had these issues.
Some had a missing hard drive, others experienced a BSOD.

 

. Your comp model?
. Are the specs, showing in your BIOS, matching what the model should be having?
. Reseat ram and hard drive and see, before writing them off

cheers ...

 

hie guys,

sorry for the late response. did the active@killdisk thingy. it worked what it was supposed to do but didn't solve my issue. did a little bit of googling over the net. it's the SATA issue.

the model is Compaq Notebook Presario CQ40-115AU. here's a helpful link:

http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service...47627+1230219055816+28353475&threadId=1263528

it's getting a bit complicated for me. tried to d/l the exe from the link, but can't install it on my notebook. I'm on Intel Centrino.

Btw,

"But it would be my personal recommendation that you download and slipstream both SP2 and SP3 along with SATA drivers onto your XP Home CD.
That way you will install everything in one go (and you won't have to disable the AHCI in BIOS)"

How do i do this again?

Thanks

 

Listening to me the first time around might have been helpful, but what's done is done.

I had a BSOD because my XP Pro SP3 CD didn't load the proper SATA drivers (I had them, just not the ones I needed for my system)
So I deactivated AHCI in BIOS, installed XP, then installed the latest chipset drivers, followed by the SATA drivers (after which I re-enabled AHCI in BIOS) as I didn't want to waste more time on modding the XP cd.

For slipstreaming SATA drivers ... along with the service packs 2 & 3 and all of the remaining updates onto the XP cd, you will need 'nLite'.

Detailed instructions exist here on these forums (use the 'search' function as I don't have the time right now unfortunately).
Btw, I recommend you download and use CPU-Z. It will provide detailed information about your chipset (which will allow you to know just which chipset and SATA drivers you have to download from the manufacturers website).

 

I just got over excited I guess. Should have wait for more replies first. My bad. Anyways, thanks Deks for the advice. I'll try it out now.

Thanks

 

Guys, finally ..

Streamlined SATA with XP installer. Now installing XP at my dad's notebook.

Thank you for all the advices, specially Deks (should have waited a bit longer), and Baserk for the active@killdisk application. Superb!

Thanks

 

I never had problems installing XP with SATA drives. Make sure you boot from CD, delete partition where the pirated windows is and format then install.