How do I get my old OS installed on new Computer? It won't let me.

Hey everyone!

I just finally got a new computer after my last one fried. It's a Dell XPS 600. It came with this operating system "WIndows XP Media Center Edition" and I can't stand it! I keep getting blue screens of death on bootup. I've tried reformatting several times.

I want to install my old version of XP PROFESSIONAL that I bought a few years ago.

I put the disk in, set the bios to boot from disk, and boot from the CD. It goes through the process of anazlyizing the system, but when I go to install the O/S, it says "no hard drive found, cannot install".

I do not have this problem reinstalling the O/S the computer came with! I called Dell and they want money to help me to I said no way.

I even went to DOS and formatted in C:\, and then booted from my old XP PRO CD, but got the "no hard drive found" message.

Why can't I install my old XP PRO onto this new machine?

PS. Also, I have an old SONY 21 inch CRT I bought about 5 years ago. Doesn't work with this new computer. I only get 3 colors, it looks horrible.
Is it because it's old and incompatible? So I hooked up the 17 inch LCD the comuter came with, and it works fine.

Anybody out there can help me get my old XP PRO installed? In 5 years not 1 blue screen of death. This thing crashes every other boootup. I'm about to send it back to Dell!

 

it sounds like your new computer uses a Serial ATA hard drive (SATA). In many cases, this requires an additional driver to be loaded by Windows XP Setup via floppy disk so that setup can interface with the drive.

I need to run off to class, but you should be able to find out what kind of SATA controller is in your XPS600 and locate the corresponding Windows XP driver. I'll try to help more when I have time

 

You're right it is a SATA HD this Comp is using! So if I find this driver how do I go about getting my old version of XP PRO to use it during starting installation?? AARGH just got blue screen again... never got this in 5 YEARS with old XP PRO

 

Ok it says it's a SAMSUNG HD 160JJ/p SATA 0

I get a blue screen every other bootup. It's killing me.

I just want to get my old XP PRO installed. I am going to try and reformat one more time with this stupid OS they sent me.

 

If you have the proper driver on a floppy drive (check the disks, software etc. that came with your computer), you should be able to load it by pressing "F6" when prompted during the "loading files" part of setup. If you don't get that far, there may be a special BIOS setting or something we need, so let us know if that works at all...

 

In addition:

This only shows up for a second or two, so be quick.

 

ok, so fishing around on the Dell support site, I'm pretty sure this nVidia MediaShield storage driver is the SATA driver for your onboard nvidia chipset. its the first link here http://support.dell.com/support/dow...ID=XPS_PNT_P4_DXG&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=9711 and even says "at OS install time only"

after you click the link, click the download link, and save the file. Its an EXE that is a self-extracting archive... meaning it will unzip a bunch of files to a folder (the default is C:\dell\drivers\R105373)

take a blank formatted floppy and put all of those extracted files onto it, and remove it from the drive.

Boot to the XP disk, and right after the "Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration", as soon as the screen turns blue, you will see the "press F6 to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver" at the bottom of the screen for 2-3 seconds

tap F6 a few times, and wait while setup loads files. After a few minutes, you will be prompted to inser the floppy disk you made with the drivers on it, and you will be able to select the SATA driver. The rest of the install is as usual. Hope this helps

 

thank you!

But I have a problem. This cpu didn't come with a floppy drive. Only 2 CD ROM drives. I did put in my XP PRO CD and hit f-6, and it said "enter disk into A:" but I don't have an A:! Just a C:, D:, E:... I'm not sure I can do this. I don't know what to do. I c an burn those files onto a CD-R and put it into the CDROM drive, but I don't think it will work. Any way around this?

Demand a new comp? I get the blue screen of death only after bootup almost every other time. I have reformatted several times. I know I installed everything right.

 

without a floppy drive, the only way to do that that I am aware of is to integrate the drivers into a bootable XP disk. There are many ways of doing this, and commonly i hear nLite mentioned as an easy method. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4324

this will allow you to (using your orignal XP disc) add the additional SATA drivers that I linked you to to a new bootable Windows Setup disc.

 

ok, thanks again...

So I will download this program. Then I need to copy my original XP PRO disk and somehow add the files you linked me to?
Or the drivers will be on a seperate disk I don't need to copy my XP disk?

 

Ecin wrote:

So I will download this program. Then I need to copy my original XP PRO disk and somehow add the files you linked me to? yes

Or the drivers will be on a seperate disk I don't need to copy my XP disk? No

this program merge your driver with xp or they call this sliptream i think so will burn a new copy of xp with those driver inside....

You will have a new xp with those drivers....

Hope this help...

 

Thanks...

I'm at work now and I can't try out that program. But I'm failing to understand how to make a brand new XP PRO CD w/ those drivers on it. I'll check out the program. I don't think it's a problem with the computer, because it's only after a boot this happens. I think it's a program I have installed, maybe my printer. It is very old. About five years. Perhaps it's not compatible with the comp. My old monitor wouldn't work. I am formatting one last time and will carefully analyze everything I install and see when the problem occurs.

One time it started right after I installed my printer.

One time the problem started right after I installed Nero.

The last time the problem started right after I installed another program.

So I think either the printer or a program is causing this.

 

you dont need to do a complete reformat every time-- have you tried uninstalling the printer drivers and cleaning them and seeing if there is still any issue?

 

It looks like I've stabalized the ship captain!

The problem started RIGHT after I installed ZoneAlarm.

I uninstalled it, and no crashes. Anything besides the usual uninstall to clean this thing out of my system??

crosses fingers this was the problem!