[corvidophile]

Hello everyone,

i will try to give as much information as i can on the problem.

The story: a couple of months ago i bought a new pc with Vista pre-installed. While i tried to get used to Vista i couldn't and they would just make me angry and kill my productivity daily. So 2 weeks ago i decided to format my c drive and install XP. I made a back-up of what i needed ( not full back-up since i didn't care and just wanted vista wiped once and for good).

Anyway i took my xp cd and booted from cd, basically i followed the format procedure i have been doing always and worked but not this time.

It boots from disk but when it restarts to continue with the installation of XP it simply starts booting again.

Then i realised i was in trouble. I started searching internet ( with my old pc) for solutions. Read about SATA and xp tried downloading drivers for my motherboard which again wouldnt work ( something about a file missing ). I even deleted partitions and created them again.

Then i got desperate and decided to recover Vista since i can't install XP.

But now i can't install Vista as well, it says that none of my drives is suitable for installing Vista.

Let me give you some specs:

HDD SATA II SEAGATE- 16MB - 7200 rpm
CPU INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 (s775/2,4 Ghz)
Motherboard ECS G31T-M&GIGA (775, DDR2,G31)

*read the sticky but i don't have vista cd obviously i only have a recovery disk which fails to work.
* downloaded these drivers and booted from disk by clicking F6 but it says something about a file missing ( oem. something i dont remember now)

I don't know what to do it seems i will need some advanced help.

Thank you for listening

[TerryNet]

HDD SATA II SEAGATE- 16MB - 7200 rpm

I'm guessing that 16MB is a typo, but if all that is being detected is one hard drive with no space then certainly 'none of my drives is suitable for installing Vista." Maybe something got messed up in the BIOS? Did you format the disk as NTFS (best) or something else?

[DoubleHelix]

The 16MB probably refers to cache size, not capacity.

Why don't the recovery disks work? You put it in the drive and boot.....and what happens?

[corvidophile]

Yes , drives are about 300 GB each.
Disk is formatted at NTFS

When i put the recovery disk i follow the procedure for the installation of Vista , enter key etc. Then i tried all methods, format , delete, e.t.c when i click on next it pops a message that says that no drive is suitable for installing Vista or something like that i don't remember exactly.
So i have to abort installation.

I'm clueless.

But i really don't care about Vista. I'd like to know if there is a way to install XP and what drivers am i missing? The ones i downloaded for some reason don't work.

When i called my pc provider support they didn't help at all , they just asked me to bring the pc for repair and i am totally not paying them to recover Vista.

I suspect they built it in a way that's hard for a beginner. I even installed XP on a vista laptop w/o problems!! i am really pissed off.

[DoubleHelix]

I'd suggest trying a simple boot disk to just delete whatever system partition exists. Then the recovery disks should create what they need to.

[corvidophile]

What do you mean by simple boot disk ? ( i apologise for my ignorance)

Do you think there is no way of installing XP on this machine?

Also i think i saw somewhere a small partition, i assume it is the Vista recovery one, could this be that stands in the way of installing XP?

[DoubleHelix]

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Whether or not you can install and run Windows XP depends on the availability of drivers. Sometimes they exist. Sometimes they don't. There's also some work involved in possibly creating a slipstreamed Windows XP installation disk and/or somehow installing the required SATA controller drivers.

Some people spend weeks trying to install XP on a Vista system without success. Others do it in a day. It comes down to driver availability and technical savvy.

The existence of a recovery partition has nothing to do with the ability to install an operating system. It's simply a data location.

[Noyb]

I recently installed XP MCE in a HP d4996t.
Luckily .. I found a web site that tells how to do this for the d4996t
The first problem was the SATA drivers that had to be installed to complete the XP install.

Since I don't understand how to slipstream ...The easiest way for me to do this was to temporary install a floppy reader.
I just happen to have a floppy I could borrow from another computer.
During the install .. you'll be asked if you need to install other drivers.
Did you see a press F6 for more driver options during the XP install ??

Then there was about 5 more "drivers" I had to install after XP was loaded .. to get everything else working.
Without help for your specific Mobo .. I'd say you're in trouble.

[corvidophile]

Thank you DoubleHelix , i understand , i guess i am of the unlucky ones lol . (also thanks for the link )

Since i am not that technical savvy what drivers do you think i might be missing. As i mentioned in my initial post i downloaded some Bios drivers for xp but a file was missing.

I am not sure of what drivers i need otherwise i would search for them.

Noyb i did that but obviously i am missing more drivers or didn't find the correct ones.

(sigh)

[DoubleHelix]

There's no such thing as a BIOS driver. The BIOS is not hardware. It's machine code. You need drivers for every piece of hardware. That includes the motherboard (also referred to as chipset drivers), video card, SATA controller, etc.

There are literally thousands of websites that provide info on how to "downgrade" a system from Vista to XP. Do some basic searches to find out what's involved and if someone else has done it with the same system you have.

[Noyb]

As I Remember ... I went here and got the chipset drivers for my d4996 ..
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-026488.htm
then burned it to a Floppy.
After pressing F6 during the install ... it asked for the chipset drivers to complete the XP install ... Then I let it install them from the Floppy

After XP was running .. I had to install the keyboard/mouse drivers ..
Sound Drivers & graphics card drivers.

Not wanting to ever have to do this again .. I imaged my HD using Acronis True Image to a backup in an a couple of External HDs

The problem will be finding out what "chips" you have ... and what you need.

[Olle]

Hi corvidophile

I bought a new HP laptop recently that came with Vista. I faced the same problem and searched for couple of days. I still working on installing XP pro SP3 =(, but I came a bit further then you have. I am going to spell it out in plain English since I am not a computer expert. The xp installation cd needs to find your SATA disc(assuming that you have SATA). You need to find drivers. Since I have a HP I went to their website and downloaded Intel SATA AHCI Controller. Then I found this useful webpage
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Insta...F6-47807.shtml

Check it out. After following the steps on the link you would be able to initiate the installation.

[corvidophile]

Thanks so much for the help everyone ! I really appreciate it.

I am looking now at my motherboard support cd ( well i have looked before but as i said i was clueless on what i might need and not everything could be burned to a floppy so i quit).

Anyway i am still clueless but what do i need to put on a floppy to succesfully install XP?

I am attaching an image of the MB cd index and a file that might perhaps give you a clue?

Also each time i look for drivers i can't seem to find

aren't these specs helpful for any of you to give me a hint on how to search?

HDD SATA II SEAGATE- 16MB - 7200 rpm
CPU INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 (s775/2,4 Ghz)
Motherboard ECS G31T-M&GIGA (775, DDR2,G31)

What else do i need to know to make a proper search for drivers?

[corvidophile]

bump* please anyone?

[Rich-M]

Looks to me like all the drivers you need are right here at ECS site and the P31 chipset has to have native sata driver as well...after you pass the first install and it reboots, you aren't "pressing any key" when prompted I hope after the initial time?
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Dow...nuID=6&LanID=9