Does anyone know how I can install XP on my laptop?
By animeniak
@animeniak (425)
United States
September 22, 2008 3:54pm CST
Hi mylotters, I bought a HP laptop like.. almost 2 months ago, and obviously it came with Vista. I kind of wanted to experience Vista myself, and I ended up NOT liking it, with the fact that Vista takes up too much memory and some other issues, like some of the programs that I use not working at all with Vista, etc etc. So, I have the windows XP CD with me, which is bootable. One thing I tried is that I booted my windows XP CD on my laptop, which it did boot, but you know how it does some checking files and that kind of stuff while it is booting? Then after it is done checking, it should show the Windows XP (whatever edition) setup screen. But instead, my pimp machine is NOT displaying the setup screen, and instead, it is displaying the BLUESCREEN!!!!!! (yea wtf..) So I tried to do the old fashioned way, by using the Fdisk installed on my floppy drive, and I tried to format the C drive using the Fdisk. Now it did format the C drive, but it still gave me the bluescreen when I tried to boot the XP CD. Then I tried the XP startup disk with the floppy, and that ALSO does not work!!!!! Then I searched the internet, and found the Super Fdisk program, that you burn it on the CD, and boot that CD so I can do some formatting and creating/deleting partitions, etc etc. I tried that method, and that STILL didn't work!!!!!!!!
Can any computer experts out there help me out with this situation, please? I got fed up with Vista and I really want to go back to XP... T_T (I prefer 98 SE the most, thanks to microsoft, they killed the support for 98 SE and supporting Vista the most, but I still have best version of XP with me, so I'm happy with that)
Thanks mylotters and have a great day :)
2 people like this
4 responses
@slavezero (833)
• Philippines
23 Sep 08
I think your experiencing a problem on your SATA device. if you install Windows XP without installing it's sata driver Bluescreen will appear. no matter how many times you format and repartition your drive you will have the same problem. here are the possible solutions for your problem:
1. go to your bios setting then change your SATA mode to IDE. on most occasion changing the SATA mode from RAID to IDE fixes the problem.
2.1 copy a sata driver to floppy drive
2.2 Insert Windows XP CD and boot it up. Pay attention to the next blue colored windows setup screen. When you see a message that says “Press F6 if you need to install a third party or RAID driver…” at the bottom bar, immediately hit F6 key.
2.3 After loading some files, you will come to a screen that says the following:
Setup could not determine the type of one or more mass storage devices installed in your system, or you have chosen to manually specify an adapter. Currently, Setup will load support for the following mass storage devices(s):
* To specify additional adapters, CD-ROM drives, or special disk controllers for use with Windows, including those for which you have a device support disk from a mass storage device manufacturer, press S.
* If you do not have any device support disks from a mass storage device manufacturer, or do not want to specify additional mass storage devices for use with Windows, press ENTER.
2.4 Enter floppy drive with SATA drivers and press S. It will present a list of drivers which it read from the disk earlier. Select the appropriate driver and continue the Windows XP installation. The setup will continue and this time it will recognize the SATA hard disk drive in your PC. This problem is quite common nowadays compared to last time because a lot of computers now are using SATA hard drive with better motherboards that has RAID.
follow this link for a more detailed instruction http://it-aid.blogspot.com/2008/02/installing-windows-xp-on-sata-hd.html
Personally I don't recommend downgrading your system to XP because you might have problem installing drivers for hardwares. some manufacturers like Compaq build hardwares that are vista compatible.
hope this helps.
@slavezero (833)
• Philippines
24 Sep 08
thanks for the pencil :D.
you can look for your drivers at their website or call their support and ask for XP drivers for your laptop. goodluck.
@animeniak (425)
• United States
23 Sep 08
wow... I've never even thought about changing SATA mode to IDE... I was about to give up on this thing, but man, you really rock!! haha I got fed up with Vista, because there were more programs I could not run on Vista, but can run on XP. By the way, I got the pimp version of XP with me, and I LOVE IT so much!!! But then again, I did have trouble trying to find the drivers that are compatible with XP for this laptop, which is like the major problem for me. Wow.. you must be expert with computers haha :) I really appreciate your help and have a great day :D
1 person likes this
@techgurl (451)
• Greece
22 Sep 08
When you start your computer, it should say something like "Press F12 to go to BIOS". When you are in the BIOS, look around to find the boot sequence of the devices. Instead of booting from the hard disk first, specify to boot from the CD-rom first. This way every time you restart your PC, first it will check if there is a bootable CD inside. Then just restart the computer with the XP CD inside and it will boot it. Hope this will help you get rid of Vista.
@animeniak (425)
• United States
23 Sep 08
I already tried booting with CD in the first time, and that did not work. My laptop does boot from the hard drive first time, and I did specify to boot from the CD-Rom first, and it does boot. The problem is, once it started booting from CD, it does check the files and does what it is supposed to do in that stage. Once it's done with that stage, it is supposed to display the windows xp setup screen, but instead of displaying the windows xp setup screen, it displays the bluescreen, and I'm trying to avoid that problem. Well, thanks for your reply.
@mirage108 (3402)
• United States
22 Sep 08
have you tried your function keys one of them will give you the option to boot to cd or usb or other device I dont remember which F-key it is. sorry to here you dont like Vista, I have been running it for about 6 months now and I love it.
Vista Rocks
@animeniak (425)
• United States
22 Sep 08
Yes, I have tried all of that, but my laptop does not have any option to boot with cd or usb or other device by pressing any function keys above. Instead, it tells me to choose the booting method by pressing ESC key, which is kinda odd LOL and I tried every booting method I could ever think of, which none of them worked -_-... thanks for your reply and happy mylotting :)
@jwfarrimond (4473)
•
22 Sep 08
Well, I don't like Vista and I've never used it. I don't like that it's so memory hungry and I don't like it's not back compatible with many programs that I use and like. I recently got a new laptop, and I went for one of the few that did NOT have Vista installed. I have never heard of anyone trying to back install the OS, but it sounds to me as if you have managed to corrupt the hard drive.
@animeniak (425)
• United States
22 Sep 08
I didn't corrupt the hard drive, and the vista works fine on the hard drive that I installed. I have a bootable windows XP install CD which I used it to boot the computer, so it would do checking files and some other neat stuffs like that. Now, after it checks all the files and does everything it needs to do in that stage, it should show me the setup screen, which it DOES NOT, and it shows the BLUESCREEN instead!! isn't that ridiculous?? Well anyway, some people who experienced the same thing tells me not to downgrade to XP, because the laptop manufacturers these days build their laptops so it will work like crap after using XP on them for a few days... well thanks for your reply and happy mylotting :)
