Is it possible to downgrade from Vista to Xp Pro?

I really don't like this vista. when i put xp disc it doesn't let em load it. Is there a way to have xp pro in a vista comp?

 

You could use VMware or Virtual PC to run XP in a virtual environment... What exactly do you want?

 

You could format your hard drive do delete Windows Vista completely. Than install Windows XP on it.

 

Since we will eventually be forced to Vista no matter what, you might as well keep it. Remember dual booting is always an option.

 

Yes, there is... but the steps will vary somwhat from one model to another. The basic steps are:

1) Grab all the drivers (for XP) that you are going to need from the manufacturer's website. Burn them to CD/DVD, or copy to a flash drive.

2) Backup eveything you need/want.

3) (For systems with SATA hard drives only.) Reboot. Go into BIOS. Set "Native SATA Mode" (or similar function) to disabled. Alternatively, you can create an XP install disc with the drivers integrated, if you feel like messing with nlite, or if you don't have any other option.

4) Reboot to the Windows XP CD. It "should" find your hard drive if you have the BIOS correctly, or correctly created a modified disc. Select where to install, do a quick format (you will lose EVERYTHING) and let it do its thing.

5) Enter your product key and other info when asked, and an hour or so after starting you should have a "clean" XP system.

6) Install the drivers you grabbed off the manufacturer's website. Reinstall any software you use, and copy back your data files.


That should be it. Not a fun process, but ti usually works.

 

Why would he be forced to use Vista?
Depending on the tasks he uses his laptop for he might never need Vista.

Dual booting is an option but if you really hate Vista and never plan to use it then there's no real point to keep it on your system. You could always format again and re-install Vista later down the road if you wanted to.

 

It'd be helpful to state what notebook it is you have?

 

Is this the first time you install an OS on your laptop?

You have to change the boot order in BIOS to make it actually try to boot from the CD. Otherwise it'll happily ignore that and boot from the harddrive instead.

Apart from that, you should probably look around for drivers so you have them ready for when you've reinstalled, since XP probably won't have all the drivers you need. (Be sure to *at least* have a network driver ready on a usb stick or something. Once you can get online, you can download the remaining drivers if neccesary, but it's hard to do anything without network capability.

 

That works very well Or dual booting.

Any why is going from Vista to XP Pro a downgrade? I consider having more control and the ability to access more things on your computer (without permission) an upgrade

 

Vista to XP is as XP is to 2k. Yes, 2k will give you more manual control, but eventually, everyone moved to XP and 2k was ignored by most people (at least the people I know). Besides, Vista should be much more usable after SP1 (perhaps even more so that XP). I'm just saying that since he has Vista pre-installed (no driver hassles, etc), it would be prudent to use leave it on the HD.

Anyways, as others have said, make sure you put the optical drive at the top of the boot sequence. If you don't have an external HD, then you could always make a second partition first (use something like Acronis Director or Partition Magic) and move all your data there first (including the drivers).

 

I don't know what to make of Vista... right now I am running Kubuntu Linux with Beryl for free, and I am running XP as a virtual OS. Inside XP I can run all my games and LabView from NI. Linux is capable of things MS can only wish for.

 

Change to classic appearance. Run as the system administrator.

looks like w2000 with an xp pro feel to me

 

You're gaming thru a virtual OS? What games are you playing?

 

I always like xp and i have the basic vista, i dont do games i jsut do college work and browse the internet. i have a 640m Dell

 

Hi guys,

I had to bring up this long dead thread since I am having issues downgrading from Vista business to Pro.

I did disable the "Native SATA Mode" but after my XP CD copies all the drives and tries to go into the screen where u choose the partition to install, I get MS famous "Blue screen of death". My laptop is a HP DV2235 series...

Any help is appreciated!

 

you need to slipstream the SATA drivers into the XP install.

google 'slipstream' and you'll find apps which will handle this for you

 

= i





i need to load xp on to a laptop for a customer but it has vista on, i can't format it because it is a sata harddrive, can sombody please tellme how to do it.

Thanks
Chris

 

lol, just saw your post, so I know I'm quite late, but many others may have the same question. It's really very easy to set up the sata drivers. Get "nLite"(just google on the net). Download>>install it. It's a Wonderful program for those wishing to slipstream SATA drivers or SP2/3 releases into their existing XP PRO disk. It walks you through it, simple as pie. You just insert your XP CD into your optical drive, extract the files to a folder, tell nLite where the folder is, where the SATA drivers are, along w/ SP updates and it extracts/slipstreams them into a new CD/DVD for you. It sounds difficult, but nLite makes it so easy....... And there's vLite to do the same sort of thing with Vista. And if you've lost your DELL OEM XP Pro SP2 re-installation disk, I just saw a link for a "genuine Dell OEM XP PRo SP2" download on another site, so give me a shout if you need it.

Buy you just gotta try out nLite- a wonderful little program. Ann

 

You can not downgrade from Vista to XP because XP is an upgrade!