Downgrading from Vista to XP Home SP2

[[NoV]Farmer]

i know there are alot of threads already with people asking the same thing.
but people seem to be getting alot of problems with getting xp to start up after formatting.
I tried to install xp over Vista, but the "install XP" option was greyed out when i tried to do so.
So how can i remove Vista and Install xp with no problems.
Here are my pcs specs:

Processor Type AMD Athlon 64 3800 Processor
Clock-Speed 2.4
Front Side BUS 1GHz
Cache 512 MB
Operating-System Windows Vista Premium
RAM Memory 1024 MB
Hard Disk Capacity 160 Gb

Thanks

 

[kimsland]

I'd fully backup all data on your computer

Boot off Xp CD and select remove partition and format
Then install Windows Xp

Note: you will need your motherboard disc with all Xp drivers, to install after Windows has been installed. Or download from the web.

 

[[NoV]Farmer]

thanks, but i did not get a disc with all the drivers when i got my pc - i got the pc today from Dixons. but as you said i can get them from the web.

 

[[NoV]Farmer]

thing is, i get the message Disc Boot Failure, insert system disc and press enter.
i have cd rom set to 1st in bios settings and everything, so the problem isnt there.
any ideas as to why this is happening?

 

[kimsland]

Your CD is not being read by your computer
As long as it's a Windows CD it should boot

Either the CD drive is not set as master (internal hardware)
Or data cable (internal again) is faulty
Or the CD is faulty
Or the actual CD drive is faulty

Also if the option exists in bios to have all devices as CD boot do that
1st Boot Device - CD
2nd Boot Device - CD
3rd Boot Device - CD

But you must bring it back to normal (Harddrive as 2nd boot device) once the first boot happens in Windows install

 

[[NoV]Farmer]

right. well i have it set to 1st boot device and everything else disabled.
i know theres no problem with the cd because i can browse the files when i am actually on vista. but on vista, it has the "install XP" option greyed out.
so i tried to boot from cd and do it that way but the message keeps popping up "Disc Boot Failure, insert system disc and press enter"

 

[kimsland]

Either the CD drive is not set as master (internal hardware)

Or the CD is faulty

I stand by this !

 

[[NoV]Farmer]

Either the CD drive is not set as master (internal hardware)

What do you mean by this. sorry im not that up on pcs.

also if the cd is faulty, how come i can read the data from it and manually browse the cd.??

 

[kimsland]

Sorry I meant CD Disc
ie it may require cleaning
It may be scratched
It may be warped
It may be a copy !

The Master part:

Inside your computer there are two data cables to the HardDrive and Cd Drives
Sometimes, when want to be techs, set these up, they set them up incorrectly
ie They put the harddrive on the 2nd port of the M/b
and they put the Cd drive on the first port of the M/b

Also the little jumper on the back of the CD may be set to "Slave"
Although this will not affect normal Windows operation, it will stop a CD from starting.

I'd say start with the cleaning option first
Then get professional support on internal drive configuration

 

[[NoV]Farmer]

okay thanks for your time

 

[SNGX1275]

Is this a burned version of XP?

The reason I ask is you would get those problems you describe if you took all the files off an XP disk, copied them to your hard drive through Explorer, then burned them to a cd. The disk you make that way won't be bootable. If you could get to a DOS prompt (like from something like ultimate boot cd) then you could still install XP. The path to start setup that way is <cddrive>:\I386\winnt.exe

 

[kimsland]

I was thinking that myself, about the copy part

As for the <cddrive>:\I386\winnt.exe from a Dos prompt, sadly will not work.
I know cause I've tried it.
Windows 98 (setup) Yes
Xp/Vista -No

 

[SNGX1275]

Yes it will. I've done it in the past. Setup.exe from the root directory does not work, it gives some error. But the winnt.exe will work. It may not work for Vista, but it works for 2k/XP

The difficulty is getting to a dos prompt without a floppy drive. I think I tried a year or 2 ago with UBCD to get a dos prompt with lots of failure, not sure if I ever did get it to work.. I think I did, just that the computer had some other problem too...

 

[kimsland]

Damn you're right again !
I was thinking you need the 6 disks
But if you know all the drivers required then it can (and has been) done
Had to pop over to bootdisk to confirm

 

[[NoV]Farmer]

so any idea which boot disk/dos prompt i will need for XP home edition SP2?

 

[kimsland]

Is this a burned version of XP?

Must be answered first.
Otherwise supplying a bootdisk may not help

 

[[NoV]Farmer]

yes it is.

 

[kimsland]

SNGX1275 will need to answer any further questions

 

[[NoV]Farmer]

alright. thanks for your help, once again

 

[SNGX1275]

Really, without a floppy drive it probably isn't worth your time to get something just to get to a DOS prompt. What you should do instead is make your cd bootable, or rather create a bootable one from your cd.

Basically you need the part that makes it bootable, which can be found here. Or take it off a real cd.

Hopefully you have Nero, doesn't matter that much. Just follow the instructions here: http://www.technipages.com/how-to-slipstream-windows-xp-service-pack-2.html I know its about slipstreaming, but all you care about is getting a bootable disk out of this, you should be able to figure it out from there. If not, I guess post back.

 

[[NoV]Farmer]

okay, i got the cd to be bootable, but now im getting an error saying "cannot find DOS". :?

*edit* I meant "cannot Load DOS".

 

[SNGX1275]

I have no idea then, I wouldn't expect XP's setup to use DOS in any form.