formating from vista to XP

[Styx555]

Just got my 6400 laptop from Dell, however do not want Vista. What's the easiest way to install XP. I tried putting the XP disk in, however will not allow me to install over Vista.

Any suggestions?

[rilhouse]

are you putting the disk in after booting to vista? if so, try to boot from the XP disk, then format the vista partition & install XP.

[Styx555]

can anyone walk me through this step by step. Tried putting the XP disk in on boot up however still goes to Vista?

[slim_shady]

One thing to be careful of, if the laptop was designed for Vista, there may be no XP drivers for some of the hardware.

[V A N Q U I S H]

I'm in the same boat as the OP, you have to boot from the disk from the bios first. I'm not worried about drivers and such, they are available for XP. The specs of my 6400 are in my sig.

[rilhouse]

check the BIOS & make sure that CD/DVD-ROM is set as the first boot device. then just put in your XP disk & reboot.

if that doesn't work, your XP disk is not bootable. you'll need to find one that is or find another work around.

[willy]

One thing to be careful of, if the laptop was designed for Vista, there may be no XP drivers for some of the hardware.

Agree absolutely ... This is a very important factor ! Collect/find all the XP drivers before you do anything !!

[V A N Q U I S H]

Agree absolutely ... This is a very important factor ! Collect/find all the XP drivers before you do anything !!

How's that? I think if anything it would be the other way around, going from XP to Vista some drivers may not be available.

I've had to install many drivers for my new Dell because it seems that they just slap hardware together and then ship the units out and leave the proper software installation to the end user. Of all the drivers I've installed so far (graphics, NIC, and sound) there are XP versions available as well.

[willy]

Some of the new Sony notebooks do NOT have official XP drivers available from Sony at all. Owners of those notebooks have a difficult time to hunt down the XP drivers.

[Evil Baby]

You can find drives for all the important things if you look hard enough. You may have to look at the hardware manufactures site though, not Dells site. If that doesn't work then most of the machines have an exact XP cousin with just a different name. Use those drivers instead.


Now for the OP, are you using OEM cd or a Retail cd?

[V A N Q U I S H]

Now for the OP, are you using OEM cd or a Retail cd?

Is there a difference? When I'm going to do this myself I'll be getting an OEM.

[V A N Q U I S H]

Some of the new Sony notebooks do NOT have official XP drivers available from Sony at all. Owners of those notebooks have a difficult time to hunt down the XP drivers.

lol why does Sony always have issues like that, reminds me of my Clie days, SL10->NX73->NX80, those things were awesome though.

[Evil Baby]

Is there a difference? When I'm going to do this myself I'll be getting an OEM.

If you're getting a new OEM then no. I've had a lot of people tell me at work they are planning on formatting the Vista machine with their Windows XP cd they got from thier Dell machines and such. I just wanted to make sure you weren't doing something like that because your Vista machine would not have a cd key, but if you're buying a new OEM dics then you should be fine.


As long as your cd-rom is above you hard disk in boot order all you should have to do is put your XP cd in your machine and reboot. When it says press any key... press the any key. Then just do a full format and follow the instructions.

[Tereno]

Here's a step by step guide that I found that would probably help you out:

http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

here's another link:
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/about88231.html

[xaueious]

lol why does Sony always have issues like that, reminds me of my Clie days, SL10->NX73->NX80, those things were awesome though.

Its not just sony. HP/Compaq as well, so Dell is likely to follow suit