How can i downgrade to xp?

Have you looked in your Device Manager to see if any hardware is in error state?

Do you have a windows.old file in the root drive? You can rollback from that.

You can get more specialized install help in the Installation and Setup forum here.

if you use RAID your windows XP may not detect your hard drive without you providing the correct raid driver(same with SCSI). You can do that by having a floppy or something handy.

If you do not care about any data on the hard drive right now, and you know the hard drive has no special drivers required while XP will not detect it, you could have something messed up with a partition. You could use Windows 7 installation disk, a linux distribution or a "Boot and Nuke" to delete all partitions(and everything else on the hard drive), then attempt to re-install windows XP.

Windows 7 method, stick windows 7 install disk in, go to custom install, advanced, delete the partitions. Don't make new ones. When you are done, reset and stick XP in.

To do linux method, download a linux distribution of choice. Boot with it, use the installer's partition editor. Some are easier than others. None are really hard if all you want to do is delete partitions. Delete them, then reboot with XP.

To do the boot and nuke method download Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing burn it to a CD/DVD, boot with it, let it go. When all data is gone, you're good to try to install XP.

Lordbob75 said:

Sounds like driver issues, not a bad OS.
Don't knock it right out of the box just because a few things are bad.

If you have an XP INSTALL disc, pop that in and boot into, problem solved.

If it still can't read it, then a bad disk or optical drive.

~Lordbob

When i boot it up though i get an error message when trying to install it ''Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer'.

gregrocker said:

Have you looked in your Device Manager to see if any hardware is in error state?

Do you have a windows.old file in the root drive? You can rollback from that.

You can get more specialized install help in the Installation and Setup forum here.

Everythings fine in device manager and i dont have the windows.old folder

tannim said:

if you use RAID your windows XP may not detect your hard drive without you providing the correct raid driver(same with SCSI). You can do that by having a floppy or something handy.

If you do not care about any data on the hard drive right now, and you know the hard drive has no special drivers required while XP will not detect it, you could have something messed up with a partition. You could use Windows 7 installation disk, a linux distribution or a "Boot and Nuke" to delete all partitions(and everything else on the hard drive), then attempt to re-install windows XP.

Windows 7 method, stick windows 7 install disk in, go to custom install, advanced, delete the partitions. Don't make new ones. When you are done, reset and stick XP in.

To do linux method, download a linux distribution of choice. Boot with it, use the installer's partition editor. Some are easier than others. None are really hard if all you want to do is delete partitions. Delete them, then reboot with XP.

To do the boot and nuke method download Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing burn it to a CD/DVD, boot with it, let it go. When all data is gone, you're good to try to install XP.

Unfortunately my laptop doesnt have a floppy drive. As for the 7 method, i did try that but i cant seem to be able to delete the partition that 7 is installed on. It just doesnt give me the option to delete it.

Hi all
I'm not getting into arguments here - all the OP wants to do is re-install the XP OS -- why he wants to do it is his business.

The problem is (and I've often complained about this stuff before) is that you DON'T generally get a proper OS install disk with a computer bought from a store with the OS already installed (I hate the word "pre-installed - even my Bad english says to me this is impossible -- something's either INSTALLED or NOT installed - what's PRE-Installed??).

The recovery is usually based on some hidden partition - which people often delete when they re-format disks etc.

If the recovery system is broken you'll have to do the following :

1) totally WIPE / re-format the disk - you can download GPARTED or a Linux or Windows "Live" CD" for this. --UCBD4Win is a good recovery CD

UBCD for Windows

2) re-install your XP system from a Windows XP install CD.

Now these days that won't be so easy -- most machines have SATA drivers so Windows XP won't find your disks when you boot the CD (even SP3 doesn't have these available).

You'll have to "Slipstream" these into a Windows CD using say Driverpacks and nlite.

You can do this by following these instructions.

Integrate Drivers into Windows XP installation Disc | AgniPulse.Com

Build the bootable ISO using nlite - you can google for that -- I'm not doing 100% of the work .

Incidentally I do think manufacturers should give you the Microsoft installation DVD - especially as you've already paid for the windows license. They could always install the ISO image on the disk which you could burn to your own DVD if they are "cost cutting".

Cheers
jimbo

Edit: I see I missed a page, dismiss that post if you want.

Try booting with them as I have already said? You also have to make sure the boot order in BIOS is set to the cd drive before the hard drive.

Sbrideau said:

Have you tried booting the computer with the cd already in it so it doesn't go to your already installed Windows?

Thats a shame that you are going back to XP, yes it might be faster in some instances but Im sure you'll grow to love some of Win 7's features after a couple of weeks.

Good luck though in your downgrading