Is it possible to remove Vista and go back to XP?

Can I take a brand new HP Pavilion laptop that was pre-loaded with Vista and format the hard drive and then use my Dell Windows XP to install a more user friendly and reliable operating system?

 

no you won't be able to install XP the way you've mentioned. You need a real windows xp installation cd, not a dell one.

 

You can do exactly that, boot from cd and reformat the drive then install from xp cd. Only issues are that you may have trouble finding xp drivers. But its very possible.

 

But how do you boot from the CD? The machine just ignores the CD and boots from the HDD. My machine still has all boot drives except the DVD player disabled, and it works just fine. There's a program called [I think] VistaBootPRO; I used that to remove the bootloader from Vista, then I got a "NTLDR not found" error. I was told that was because I didn't have the SATA drivers on the XP disc, but I got the error without the XP disc loaded. And if you look, the system will tell you that it is NT.

 

Why would a machine need an sata driver to boot off a cd? If your machine is ingoring your boot sence you must have something set wrong in bios, anyhow just remember to keep your posts ontopic and factual. http://forums.majorgeeks.com/announcement.php?f=6 Read this announcement from the sites owner.

 

The SATA driver is to get the HDD to boot, I assume; as I said, this is above my comfort level. Rebuilding a CD to change the programs on it isn't what I want to do. I was hoping someone would be able to tell me how to get the system to read the CD.

A thought: could I load the XP boot disk onto the HDD, then run it from there?

When I loaded the CD and tried to run Setup.exe, the choice for loading XP was greyed out and would not run. But it might run from the HDD [though I wouldn't bet on it]. But it can't hurt anything to try; I've already had to restore once, so again won't be any worse. :-]

 

It was greyed out because its not an upgrade. You have to boot off the cd and run setup that way.

 

Well, that saves me having to try that. Maybe the only answer is to find someone who will do it and guarantee their work, and pay the cost.

 

You cannot use a XP OEM disk from another manufacturer for the HP/Compaq. That is because the key looks for the Dell Bios key. There has to be a really good reason to go from Vista to XP, due to changing out the OS voids the machine's warranty. Especially if you do not replace the OS before sending in to be repaired.

Personally, I would do a Dual boot setup, and maybe try Linux as an alternative, then roll back to a OS that is taking the place of Win2k, which is being pushed to the backseat by Microsoft.

 

If Warranty is not an issue, I would second browniz here. It can be difficult to put XP on, especially on a sata drive (I have tried) but if you partition your hard drive,(Vista can do this for you), and install another operating system on the other partition, you can have a dual boot. I did find a sata drive difficult to setb up XP after Vista, but tools like BCD, and VistaBootPro, will help to stop Vista from playing hide and seek with the boot files, to instal on a sata drive.If your Dell version does load, it will probably get Windows genuine advatage block, as it is not from this machine.

 

Original post #1 is 4 month's old, also.

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