[downland]

I've been reading these posts and find them super helpful, but unfortunately I haven't been able to use the information to solve my problem.

Here's what happened: I bought an Acer Aspire m3100 desktop with Vista, thinking I could just downgrade to XP no sweat. I made backup disks, then used a bootable XP install cd, and when it offered to "format" my SATA hard drive, I clicked sure.

Doh.

The format completed, but when XP finished installing, I got an unreadable hard drive error, and now Vista won't reinstall from the restore discs...I get all the way to "restarting vista" and then get an error message about the hard drive.

I have another SATA hard drive that I can use, and I have nLite, so if I could find those XP SATA drivers I could fold them into my XP install cd, but i can't locate the drivers anywhere! Not on the Acer site, not on the motherboard manufacturer's site, not on the hard drive manufacturers' sites...where else would I look? Acer has a download called "post-XP downgrade kit," but it seems tailored to Vista Business and didn't contain an exe file (or anything that I could figure out how to use) and also presumably would need to be installed when the computer is working, not from a bootable cd, which is my only option now...

Here are my specs

Motherboard:
ITE Brand
Model number IT8718F

Hard Drive (the one that XP tried to format):
Hitachi T7K500
Part number HDT725032VLA380

Other Hard Drive:
Western Digital
Caviar
WD2500JD-22HBB0

Any help would be seriously appreciated!

[sync]

Your drive is probably fine. You are on the right track with looking for drivers. It seems strange that you can't find them.

[Cinober]

:PLEASE HELP:
didn't want to create a new thread... tried searching.. that didn't work.

so here's the deal: Need to install XP after Vista is installed... (laptop with pre-installed Vista32) .. the problem is that when i try installing XP (via booting) the cd CAN'T FIND my hard disk . it needs additional drivers which i can only install via a floppy disk (My laptop doesn't have a floppy disk device and i won't buy a portable one ) and if i try installing XP via Vista itself i get the famous "Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD" error...
is there another way?!

[sync]

You need to slipstream the drivers and create a new XP install disk. nLite is a pretty good tool to do that.

nLite does a lot more than drivers and it will take a while to learn. Perhaps someone can suggest an easier tool for slipstreaming drivers.

[tcy]

You need to go to BIOS and change the SATA option to Compatible and save, then you are ready to install any OS you like.
Thanks

[sync]

Originally Posted by tcy

You need to go to BIOS and change the SATA option to Compatible and save, then you are ready to install any OS you like.
Thanks

When I did that XP installed but then Vista would not boot.

I also assume there is some loss of performance or something in Compatible mode.

[New2Vista]

What do you mean by "using your brain?"

My XP boots up fine, but Vista won't come back on. I am very anxious, since I bought this laptop 2 weeks ago.

Advise.

[Mads S]

Hi All,

Very informative thread this one - but, as many others it JUST manages not to entirely answer my dilemma:
I have recently purchased my beaut new Aspire 7220 (Vista included) and like most I REALLY don't like Vista. I was too quick, loaded my XP 2 SP2 disk and rebooted (after changing the boot settings). XP installed fine, but I simply could not find NVidia drivers for 64bit chipset, nor for VGA - so the screen looked horrible. That is, I could but particularly the VGA driver kept saying I wasn't on a 64 bit environment and it was intended for that so it would terminate. I didn't even start to install (or search for) all the other drivers 'cause if I couldn't get my flashy new screen to look nice what was the purpose?
So I borrowed a set of recovery DVD's from a friend with a very similar machine (7280 I think) and tried to reinstall Vista (better to have a bad OS than a bad screen), and now the machine is back except for the VGA driver - still not right, and I get the same message no matter what NVidia driver I try to install (have tried both 32 and 64 bit drivers). SO - I have Vista back but my screen still looks horrible.

I would LOVE to have only XP on the machine, have no need for Vista, but it just didn't work out, and now I have this lovely new laptop with a screen that looks like the first ever colour monitor I had ('cept it is wider...)

If someone can help me here, identifying the EXACT driver I need and where to find it, I shall get PayPal to deliver some beers at your door (or at least the money to buy them with)

Thanks in advance,

Mads

[PitBull1]

If you buy a system with Vista your better off staying with that OS. Many problems arise when switching. A friend of mine has no sound and many drivers are missing when he tried to install XP over Vista. DON'T DO IT.!

Vista is more secure than XP. Its the future. Learn it and live with it.

Good luck to the one's that did do it........

[burento]

I have a different problem.

I have two hard drives and wanted to just try to install the XP on the second one and then change it to boot that one as a primary so i could learn vista here and there but have XP as my main OS.

When i try to install from CD it doesnt work. It comes up with an error to "insert boot drive or reboot with boot disk"

The bios has it to read from floppy and i even did the Esc on load up to get to the boot menu and manually selected the disk to boot from.

I get this same error.

I am even open to just wiping my computer and doing a fresh install with XP but i have been unable to do this either. I have downloaded three wipe cds and each time they just do not work. I get either errors or it just stays with a black screen for 10 mins and then load vista.

Any suggestions on a good wipe cd software?

Thanks in advance.
b

[ComputerCookie]

Originally Posted by burento

I have a different problem.

I have two hard drives and wanted to just try to install the XP on the second one and then change it to boot that one as a primary so i could learn vista here and there but have XP as my main OS.

When i try to install from CD it doesnt work. It comes up with an error to "insert boot drive or reboot with boot disk"

The bios has it to read from floppy and i even did the Esc on load up to get to the boot menu and manually selected the disk to boot from.

I get this same error.

I am even open to just wiping my computer and doing a fresh install with XP but i have been unable to do this either. I have downloaded three wipe cds and each time they just do not work. I get either errors or it just stays with a black screen for 10 mins and then load vista.

Any suggestions on a good wipe cd software?

Thanks in advance.
b

You need to change your BIOS to boot fromyour CD/DVD

[nekuee]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've been reading these posts and find them super helpful, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find the information to solve my problem.
_______________________________
One of my friend has bought a laptop (sony) with Vista on it.
he want to delete -remove- vista and install xp!
the seller didn't gave him any CD with lapotop.
can he do this?

[burento]

---

[sync]

Originally Posted by nekuee

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've been reading these posts and find them super helpful, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find the information to solve my problem.
_______________________________
One of my friend has bought a laptop (sony) with Vista on it.
he want to delete -remove- vista and install xp!
the seller didn't gave him any CD with lapotop.
can he do this?

You don't need a Vista CD to remove Vista and install XP. But if he can't get XP drivers for the laptop your friend will end up with a computer that doesn't work. Then he will need a Vista CD with the Vista drivers.

[PitBull1]

You need to FIRST format and partition your drive before installing any OS..

Then go here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en