Removing Vista, Installing XP

Hey guys. I am looking forward to purchasing this from Circuit City today...

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=188015

and it comes with Vista. Now I am unable to purchase something off the internet, so I found this XP OS in the website...

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Micr...sem/rpsm/oid/113706/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

After doing some research, this fits my budget. However, I want to remove Vista and install the XP OS. I was wondering whether I should screw around with the BIOS, how (I'm a noob), and how to totally remove any bloatware. I have also heard that I must install new drivers. For example,

The graphics card is a Nvida GeForce 8600 GT 512 MB. It is capable of running Direct X 10 games. However, I believe I need to install the driver for that from the Nvida site, or the Microsoft site?

Does the notebook have a sound card too (noob). If so, how do I change the drivers for that too.

I'm doing this because I have Fable: The Lost Chapters, and from whacking around I have found out that it works best with only XP.

Other games like GRAW 2, and The Sims 2 work on XP too.

Plus, I believe this is a 32-bit OS, so I'm able to install the Service Pack 3 from the Microsoft website.

Thanks.

 

Why are you removing Vista and installing XP?

 

XP won't offer any gaming advantages, if thats why you're switching... but its your call either way... if you do choose to switch to XP, make sure that the manufacturer has XP drivers.

Anyways, the best drivers for Nvidia cards are available at www.laptopvideo2go.com. The manufacturer's stock drivers are usually garbage.

 

actually in my scenario (and many other's) it did, using xp I got 50fps, and in vista only 25fps. Most manufacturers make xp and vista drivers for the hardware they produce- u shud not have a problem finding drivers.

 

Your best bet would be to just leave Vista on there. You are going to end up paying double the price that you should for XP too.

 

I would format the HDD then reinstall Vista using nlite. In all honesty, I did the same thing your thinking about doin but since SP1 came out Vista pretty stable.

 

Yup, SP1 made a world of a difference.
Stick with Vista honestly, it's better than XP .

 

I think you meant "vlite" instead of "nlite" Big difference.

 

i tried vlite got my total install size to about 2.5gb. Can''t remove as much as nlite with xp tho.

 

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1390&page=3

 

I was incertain on using Vista half a year ago, but now I'm with the Vista bandwagon. Just stick with it. I believe there are ways to make your games work with Vista.

 

XP does not support DirectX 10. You'll need Vista to support DirectX 10 effects.

 

there are probably threads discussing this already...but if someone could be so kind to write some kind of 'Tut' on removing 'vista' and installing xp...that would be really nice...my scenerio...setting up two extra laptops for a business type of environment...would really rather use xp pro...i already have two xp pro oem install discs...won't let me install...gets to the enter to install xp pro...then error...can't find hard drive...tried shrinking C:\ and installing xp there...same error...used a d.o.s. boot disk called kobains...and made a fat32 partition...still same error...the two laptops are Toshiba A205-S5853's...any help much appreciated

tia

A#1

 

You just format the whole thing when the XP installer prompts you, it's easy and you just follow on-screen instructions, if XP is what you really want...
Also, if you're installing XP on a SATA disk,either have the Sata drivers ready,or disable AHCI from BIOS.

 

..and make sure you have FULL XP compatible drivers for your new hardware. Some P6831 owners are having audio driver problems.

 

thats the thing...i can't get into the install screen...when pressing 'Enter' to install XP...that's when i get the blue screen saying no hard drive found...so i can't format C:\

on the SATA note...i have a Toshiba U205-S5002...it came with XP Pro...i've formatted a few times in the year and a half i've owned it...it also has a SATA drive and never had probs with re-installing XP without using the F6 function

...and yeah i've googled and found a lot of links of ppl who claimed to have been sucessful in what i'm trying to do...unfortunitly usually they don't give enough detailed info on how they did it

...lol...microsoft has a dedicated link saying they have given their permission for end users to install XP on a computer with a pre-installed version of 'Vista'...holy jump'n jesus bill gates...thats mighty kind of you...what a fook'in a$$hole retard...i mean you got enough $$$ to be happy...leave us poor schumcks alone...rant...rant...rant...'scuse me but i'm grumpy old fart...leave me alone....

 

Why people panic so easily and go back to XP?

 

If you get a blue screen saying setup cannot find your drive, it probably means Setup cannot find your drive.

You'll have to either slip stream SATA (technically chipset) drivers into your XP setup CD, copy them on a floopy disk, or (hard way) format a USB key into a floppy partition and load drivers that way.

Or, you can set your sata drive into IDE mode and load your chipset drivers in after you install XP.

 

Huh lol. This is an Asus C90S. It's fully compatible with XP if you want to know, XP 32, XP 64, Vista 32 & Vista 64 drivers should be on the DVD.

Do NOT buy this laptop now, too many problems and its price is too high compared to today's laptops.

 

Is that bad?? I thought it had a good review.