[OT] downgrading from vista to xp

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
bip
Posts: 115
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:53 am

[OT] downgrading from vista to xp

Post by bip » Tue Apr 24, 2007 7:17 am

hi,
i have (at work) a pc which i should downgrade from vista to xp,
the reason is that i have to install a tv content management system which is uncompatible with vista.
i have the desktop with vista and a xp cd.
how do i start?
should i format C:// and install xp?
or just put the xp cd in?
thanks in advance

beatpoet
Posts: 651
Joined: Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:39 am
Location: Galway

Post by beatpoet » Tue Apr 24, 2007 7:27 am

Format C:

Don't think MS allow you to 'down'grade

Amberience
Posts: 967
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2003 2:09 am
Location: London, UK

Post by Amberience » Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:04 am

Boot up with the XP cd in, when it asks you to boot from CD/DVD, press any key. Then follow the on-screen instructions. This will format your drive, and install Windows XP.

bip
Posts: 115
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:53 am

Post by bip » Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:45 am

thanks for replying!
i tried to do so but after starting to retreive the drivers (i assume from the windows xp cd) it stops, shows blue screen and says there is an error which could "corrupt" my computer... actually is what i want

now i'm formatting the hard disk with a dos utility called "killdisk" and hope that then i can install xp.... it is very long and boring, and i have to install xp on 2 other machines :?

Amberience
Posts: 967
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2003 2:09 am
Location: London, UK

Post by Amberience » Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:05 pm

bip wrote:thanks for replying!
i tried to do so but after starting to retreive the drivers (i assume from the windows xp cd) it stops, shows blue screen and says there is an error which could "corrupt" my computer... actually is what i want

now i'm formatting the hard disk with a dos utility called "killdisk" and hope that then i can install xp.... it is very long and boring, and i have to install xp on 2 other machines :?
I would adise that you grab a copy of Norton Ghost. After you've set the whole thing up, ghost the drive - complete with drivers and software if you like - then you can just return to that "clean" slate whenever you need to, and its a LOT quicker than reinstalling everything from scratch.

forge
Posts: 17422
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:47 am
Location: Queensland, AU
Contact:

Post by forge » Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:53 pm

use the new Vista feature "shrink" to create a new partition if you dont already have a blank partition, then

download a freeware program called EasyBCD which lets you easily change the bootloader and easily control it - you will need this for dual booting between vista and XP

I wouldnt totally do away with vista if you dont have to - it will catch up at some point (meaning auto update will bring it up to scratch in time) and it will be worth having both

I installed vista on a different partition and have both

but most of all do some proper googling with a tabbed browser like mozilla, there is so much info around about doing all these things you wont have any problems tracking it down

bip
Posts: 115
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:53 am

Post by bip » Fri Apr 27, 2007 9:46 am

the problem is that i have already uninstalled vista using "killdisk"... but there is somethin like a bootlog that doesn't want to let me start from
the xp cd rom.
how can i start the pc directly from dos?

forge
Posts: 17422
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:47 am
Location: Queensland, AU
Contact:

Post by forge » Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:07 pm

bip wrote:the problem is that i have already uninstalled vista using "killdisk"... but there is somethin like a bootlog that doesn't want to let me start from
the xp cd rom.
how can i start the pc directly from dos?
.
you need to set your BIOS to boot from CD and boot from the WIN XP CD

but i fWIN XP is still on the machine boot it and try and find an XP version of EasyBCD or similar - seriously, it took me about 12 seconds to find all this shit on Google - not being funny, just saying there's shitloads of info out there

bip
Posts: 115
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:53 am

Post by bip » Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:41 pm

setting the bios to start from the cd rom drive was the first thing i made :(

it comes to a point where i get an error message

*** STOP: 0x0000007b

since i'm lucky and i have also have google :wink: i found the page with the description of this error message

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324103/de

but it doesn't really help that much

any other suggestions?

nebulae
Posts: 15716
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 12:16 am
Location: New Orleans
Contact:

Post by nebulae » Mon Apr 30, 2007 2:51 pm

+1 for imaging your drive after installing XP....but I'm done with Ghost...Acronis Disk Image tools are FAR superior.

forge
Posts: 17422
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:47 am
Location: Queensland, AU
Contact:

Post by forge » Tue May 01, 2007 12:38 am

oh crap - sounds like this "kill disk" has corrupted the boot sector but not actually wiped it which might freak out WIN XP

so the startup CD doesnt run at all?

sounds like you need to go from floppy now - if you dont already have one, you might need to create the setup floppy disks from another machine

A long while since Ive done it but I did it many times in the past and I have a feeling XP doesnt actually allow you to create these anymore and only uses CD and WIN2000 was the last to allow you to create floppies

I'm pretty sure I used to do it from the WIN98 or win2000 startup floppies

have you used DOS FORMAT or FDISK to partition or format the drive before? That is a straight forward way of going back to the beginning

If you have another PC (or a friend who does) you could take the hard drive out and just format it in the other PC that would be the easiest option of all - or if you have an external caddy you could plug it in to a laptop or whatever as an external drive

if it's a laptop that's obviously a bit trickier, but I got a lead for about £5 that goes from 2.5" hard drives to a 3.5" socket

TBH - if it was me today I wouldnt stuff around too much - I have an external caddy which cost me hardly anything (about £15-20 I think years ago so they'd probably be even less now) and it was one of the best purchases I made because it always gets you out of these kind of problems, I can stick any hard drive in and fromat it, or use it as an external or I can clone/backup a drive, or rip it out and stick a DVD-R in it - it's easy

what's your setup and how many computers do you have? Or old copies of WIN98 startup floppy in the attic?

there are lots of solutions

if all of the solutions I have suggested so far arent possible, to be honest I'd try the Vista install again just to fix the boot sector - I have a feeling the vista one is a bit more resiliant and that's why killdisk didnt get rid of it properly

another thing you could try is booting from a Linux CD and install Grub

glu
Posts: 2769
Joined: Thu May 19, 2005 12:27 am

Post by glu » Tue May 01, 2007 1:24 am

sounds like a bitch, i sympathize.
no prevailing genre of music:
http://alonetone.com/glu

bip
Posts: 115
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:53 am

Post by bip » Wed May 02, 2007 8:57 am

ok, it seems like i have found the solution:

windows xp doesn't have sata drivers for the hd

i have turned the hd to "ide" in the bios

and it seems to work

ouffff.......

i hope it can be useful for other users

Post Reply