XP on Vista laptop?

Hi Everyone

I hope this question has not been asked before on this wonderful Forum but anyways: I have a friend that was given a Vista powered laptop. It's fine and everything but there is a Software application that he needs to run that is not Vista compatable, but will run on XP.

He has an original XP disc. Can I wipe his Hard drive of Vista and install XP?

Will this work??

Thank you
Head

 

Yes, though you will have to find the correct drivers for it. What type of laptop is it?

 

Hi Joel

It's a Fujitsu Siemens lappie.

Regards

Head

 

Ok. Well just go onto the Fujitsu website, put in the model number and see if they have any drivers for Windows XP. They should, though.

However, if they don't you will need to find the drivers from the correct device manufacturers website, or use software to find the drivers.

 

Thank you. I will check it out.

Regards
Head

 

you can install both and boot whichever you need.

 

Thanks.

I am a noob when it comes to Operating Systems

I sort of know XP. Been using it for around 5 years. Never had a problem with it.

Thing is I read somewhere that Microsoft allows you to upgrade for example from XP to Vista but not the other way around...ie: remove Vista and install XP.

That is what is worrying me

Thank you
Head

 

And I really don't want to brick my friends perfectly functioning Vista lappie by trying something which wont work....

Thanks
Head

 

Can't brick the laptop by dual-booting (IMO, in this case it's pointless too). Can only make a mistake which is easily fixable by reinstalling. You can't "downgrade" from Vista to XP as such, you can only format the drive and install XP over it.

 

What you could try also:
Vista supports several compatibility modes. You might try these.
The other option would be virtualization. No option for most games and software that has to rely on certain hardware.

You might also check if there are Vista compatible updates for that software.

The points speaking against installing a dual boot system are:

• experience is required. Many users have problems with the Sata drivers for example. Also, you need all the drivers. Some laptop manufacturers do not provide XP drivers for laptops that were originally shipped with Vista.
• an existing recovery partition may get inaccessible. There are still users that find the recovery system useful.

Michael

 

Have you ever tried installing the application in compatibility mode?

Maybe even Wind 2000 rather than XP - could be worth a try.

 

I agree with the compatibility mode suggestions. That's the first thing to try. Installing XP on a laptop designed for Vista may not be very easy.

Another option is virtualization. If the program is not that performance-intensive, I would try installing your copy of XP in a virtual machine. I'm not that familiar with using VMs, but I think you won't need to worry so much about the drivers if you go that route, so it should be easier to set up.

If you prefer to use XP as a "native" OS, you might have to either slipstream SATA drivers or set your hard drive to use IDE mode in BIOS... there have been plenty of threads about it here over the years. But first check the manufacturer's site for XP drivers.

 

What do you mean with "it didn't allow you to"? Did you Blue Screen?

-> It possibly runs on Sata, XP does not have Sata drivers, i.e. you need to supply them on a floppy disk or slipstream them into the installation.
Still... unless you have tried compatibility mode for the program and it didn't work, I see little reason to install XP, considering it's a tremendous downgrade from Vista or Win7.

 

I am leaving this for now.

I am a simple XP person....I don't know Vista well enough.

And the Lappie is running well on Vista at the moment....so I think I will leave it like that for the time being.

And it is all for ONE program that is not compatable with Vista...

Told him to drag his XP PC and everything out to the car that needs tuning.

Done and dusted.

 

If it's just for one application, then he should just install a Virtual Machine.

Virtualbox or VMLite work. He can install his copy of XP into it, or there are a few other variations.

 

If your install of XP is crashing, it's because the hard drive is in SATA mode.
You have to go into BIOS and switch it from SATA to AHCI I think.
After that, your XP will install just fine.

HOWEVER... before you go and kill Vista all-together, I would recommend you go to it's Device Manager and search for the names/numbers of relevant hardware that XP might not install from the get go.
These would include:
The graphics card, Network cards (LAN and Wifi), a modem (if the laptop has any), webcam, etc...

The point of doing that is that you should go online to the manufacturers websites who created the hardware in question and download their XP drivers (which should be available).
The manufacturer of the laptop will probably not have XP drivers included (only Vista ones) and this would be an easier way of tracking down the names/numbers of the hardware in question.

 

The only issue that should arise when trying to install XP on a machine made for Vista is the SATA drivers. You can use nLite to slipstream the drivers into the installation disk. Took me about 4 tries to make one, but it did work easily after that. Other hardwares aren't so much an issue. Most manufacturers provide XP drivers that can be installed.

 

There isn't a big performance difference between SATA and AHCI anyway, so one can easily switch from SATA to AHCI in bios and install/use XP.
After that you can try tracking down SATA drivers online for XP which will allow XP to run if/when the user switches the HDD in Bios back from AHCI to SATA.


The only reason I recommended the user uses Vista temporarily in the device manager is to track down exact names/numbers of the hardware in the laptop, go to manuf. websites and downloads their XP drivers for the hardware in question because XP won't recognize/install all hardware from the beginning (and it's a pain tracking the appropriate hardware/drivers if you don't know their names/numbers).