How can i downgrade to xp?

[torres9]

I installed windows 7 on my laptop a few days back after trying it for a bit i just much prefer XP to it. I tried to downgrade using my system recovery disc i made with the laptop- Which i know works as ive used it on many occasions before.

However with 7 its not even loading the disc up, i also have a built in recovery thing on the laptop and when i use the F key to use that recovery on the startup it doesnt even appear.


Im totally lost as to how i can downgrade so any help as to how i can do it would be very appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Zidane24]

You will have to clean install back to XP...

 

[TheSchaft]

You will have to clean install back to XP...

Zidane is correct. Just as you had to do a clean install to go to Windows 7, you will have to start from your recovery disks for XP and do a clean install.

What was there that turned you off from Windows 7? There are a lot of tweaks that can make Windows 7 look/feel like XP, if that is what you prefer, and it is more stable, secure, etc. that XP could ever be.

 

[gregrocker]

How to restore a Windows 7-based computer to a previous Windows installation by using the Windows.old folder

 

[Zidane24]

You will have to clean install back to XP...

I tried to downgrade using my system recovery disc i made with the laptop- Which i know works as ive used it on many occasions before.

uh...

Let's try not to be children here.

Uh...What?

I told him exactly what to do...there was nothing wrong about that I said...

 

[Sbrideau]

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

 

[torres9]

You will have to clean install back to XP...

I have tried this also but i keep getting an error message saying 'Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer'.

You will have to clean install back to XP...

Zidane is correct. Just as you had to do a clean install to go to Windows 7, you will have to start from your recovery disks for XP and do a clean install.

What was there that turned you off from Windows 7? There are a lot of tweaks that can make Windows 7 look/feel like XP, if that is what you prefer, and it is more stable, secure, etc. that XP could ever be.

I do like like it in parts but its not only me that uses the laptop, and they just find xp easier.

 

[Barman58]

Do you have the space to try a dual boot - that way you could trial the new OS and "the others" could learn to love it

 

[torres9]

Do you have the space to try a dual boot - that way you could trial the new OS and "the others" could learn to love it

My laptops only has about 69gb's, so thats not really an option for me.

 

[torres9]

This is seriously becoming a joke now, its not reading any of the discs that im trying to use to downgrade (XP disc and my recovery disc) and To make matters worse its not even detecting any wireless networks anymore even though theyre clearly on and right next to the laptop - and yes they do work as im connected to it on my iphone.

Its quite shocking really that microsoft have made it such a struggle to simply dowgrade to a previus OS. I have no idea what to try now

 

[Lordbob75]

This is seriously becoming a joke now, its not reading any of the discs that im trying to use to downgrade (XP disc and my recovery disc) and To make matters worse its not even detecting any wireless networks anymore even though theyre clearly on and right next to the laptop - and yes they do work as im connected to it on my iphone.

Its quite shocking really that microsoft have made it such a struggle to simply dowgrade to a previus OS. I have no idea what to try now

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

 

[gregrocker]

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.

 

[tannim]

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.

 

[bobtran]

See post #4 for instructions to revert back to XP WITHOUT having to reinstall and lose everything you have installed.

I HAVE used this process and it works fine unless you have deleted the windows.old directory.

you do NOT have to re-install from scratch......

 

[torres9]

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'.

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

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.

 

[Tews]

Use a third party program like gparted, or an ubuntu live cd to format your hard drive, then use the xp install disc ...

 

[Barman58]

OK following on from Tews suggestion above if you download and burn the Boot disk from Partition Wizard, boot from the disk and use the software to mark the hard disk based recovery partition as active. Reboot the machine and the OEM restore should operate as intended.

If you do not have the recovery partition remaining on the disk the Partition Wizard disk can be used to fully wipe and reconstruct your partitions on the hard disk

This should then allow you to use your recovery disks to restore

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to boot computer directly to manage partition.

 

[jimbo45]

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

 

[Sbrideau]

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.

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

 

[drewpul]

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