removing vista for XP. what should i be carefull with?

i am sick and tired of vista on my laptop and i will be removing it soon and installing windows xp home edition.

i have never done this before... so... what should i be concerned with before i make this change?

anything i need/should be carefull with?

i know drivers are usually most of the issues right? anything else?

thank you all.

 

For me finding the drivers were the hardest step of it. Everything else is basically like installing xp all over again. It took me about 2.5 hours to do mine. Another thing, I've read many forums and guides that explained that you can't install xp because xp only recognizes ata and vista reads sata. That is part right. That did happen to me but I found an easy way around it. Get into your bios setting and disable flash cache mode and change the ahci to ide. After that everything else should be easy.

 

1) Back up your data (also remember bookmarks, email client archives, etc)
2) Ensure that all hardware has XP drivers

 

i can sympathize with you...my lappy came with XP PRO...i really...really...really hate vista...but in all reality it's just a matter of time until XP is phased out, security and update wise...just like all the previous M$ O.S.'s...slip streaming the sata drivers was an issue...looks like 'wassup' found a way around that...although all BIOS’s may not have that feature...sooner or later driver support is gonna fall...ever tried to rebuild an old Pentium III...good luck for finding all the drivers you'll need...best of luck to you on your venture

 

thank you all. i guess i have to start searching for my drivers then, huh?

i have a hp dv6700t laptop with;

intel 2 duo t8300
15'4 widescreen display
3gb ddr2 memory (2 dimm)
256 n vidia geforce 8400m GS video card
fingerprint reader
microphone
webcam
intel pro wireless 4965a GN network card
250gb 5400rpm sata hard drive
8x dvd double layer drive


any issues finding XP drivers for the hardware above?

 

http://soulpass.com/2007/11/10/inst...essional-sp2-on-acer-aspire-5315-2153-laptop/

that link has a fool proof walk thru for slipstreaming the SATA drivers using NLITE

you should have no probs finding XP drivers for most of your hardware..

make sure you have the all the drivers you can find burned onto a seperate CD before beginning to intstall XP

and use NITLE instead of changing harddrive access method