Uninstall Vista - Install XP : WTF?

[Vuitton]

Seriously, I never imagined doing this would be so complicated. I just moved to a new city and I am staying at a friend's for three weeks and he said all I had to do for payment was remove Vista from his new computer and install XP.

His computer:

HP Pavilion m9380d PC

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/th/en...3-3752037.html

The hard drive is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 3Gb/s NCQ 750GB 16MB Cache Hard Drive.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...&reqPage=Model

The problem:

I attempt to boot from an XP SP2 Slipstreamed CD to format Vista and begin installation, but the moment XP is done loading its drivers and begins to load the Windows installation procedures, I get a BCOD error (0x000007B) immediately.

So, I have no clue on how to get XP installed. I read the problem might be that XP SP2 doesn't have the drivers necessary for the hard drive and I would need to slipstream those into the XP SP2 disc. I have no idea on how to find the necessary drivers for doing that.

I am also considering creating a partition to install XP on, then formatting Vista. But I read Vista really fucks around with the Master Boot Record or something when you uninstall it.

I really have no idea what to do. Please help me Bluegartr Tech Gurus! T_T

<3

Vuitton

Edit:

I am also worried that he may have hardware in his computer that XP won't like, but I have no clue if that is true. I really don't want to fuck his computer up if I manage to get XP installed and Vista removed.

Edit 2:

This is a brand new computer, so there is nothing on it to back up. (If that was a concern.) I did create the 3 DVDs for recovering Vista though as a precaution.

[Isiolia]

First, if you have a RAM check to run, run it. If this is a brand new computer, it's possible that it shipped with bad RAM (or other hardware). Run some diagnostics.

Ultimate Boot CD should be a good way to go, there are several RAM checks on that.


Normally, for HDD driver stuff, it's not a crash but rather you get a "no hard disks found" message. You could slipstream drivers in, which would typically just be the SATA drivers for your given chipset/model/whatever you find.
Something else you can look for is in the BIOS. Check and see if the SATA interface is set to run on ATA or AHCI mode. Vista includes support for AHCI mode natively...XP does not. See where this is going?

Other drivers may be difficult, as HP only supports Vista on the machine. It looks like most stuff should have XP drivers available, if you go directly to Intels n' nvidia's sites and all. However, there's the chance that it'll have something with no XP support.

[Senoska]

fdisc and start over?

[Isiolia]

Should be able to nuke the partitions or whatnot from the XP installer. I've converted plenty of new machines to XP from Vista as we're not deploying Vista yet at work, but I've yet to need to use anything outside of that.

[volcanicweather]

Maybe I can re-pay you for all the great Seattle info you gave me now Vuitton =)

Do you know exactly why your friend wants to "downgrade" to XP? It's really not a smart thing to do if your friend spent a lot of money on the computer as current and future software is being made in Vista in mind.

If your friend just wants to run a couple apps in XP, like I did, you should consider doing this:

http://lifehacker.com/software/windo...-pc-238071.php

It worked wonders for me, but I just use a couple programs and editors which don't work in Vista.

[Vuitton]

I'll check that App out when I leave work later. Thanks for the tip! My friend uses the computer for work. His main program is Rhinoceros (http://www.rhino3d.com/), and Photoshop (He designs expo booths for retailers.) Other than that, he uses the computer for porn.

The only reason he wants to use XP is because he has heard nothing but negativity about it. In addition, his sister who is working on her doctor thesis lost two weeks of work when Vista magically made her document disapear. I don't know the details regarding that, but thats what he told me. She took her laptop to a computer guy and he dugg her document out from somewhere.

So, his main concern with using Vista is randomly losing his work overnight. He does back up, but I think he does so weekly, not daily. He is also concerned with performance. Vista is such a resource hog, and Rhino is a rendering program that eats up a lot of resources on its own.

In regards to FDisk and formatting the partition, that is not a possibility. I'll boot from CD, the drivers will begin to load, then it will say "Windows is Loading" or something, and then I'll get a blue screen of death with error 0x7B. Which I've researched to be a driver issue. XP doesn't have the correct driver to control/engage/load the hard drive to run Windows.

If I can find whatever ATA Controller (SATA Controller?) is needed (how do I find that out? I know the hard drive, and have access to device manager to look up other things.) If I can slipstream the drivers onto the XP SP2 disc, hopefully that would allow "the boot from CD" to go forward with the process where I'll have the options to format partitons and install the OS. As of now, I cannot get that far enough into the setup to format anything.

[Gippo]

The only reason he wants to use XP is because he has heard nothing but negativity about it.

ask him what he doesnt like about it. If he cant answer that, then install vista and tell him to suck it up and use it. If he's having someone else install the operating system for him, hes an average user thats joined the "I dont want vista, but I dont really know why club" that just wont die.

People fear what they dont understand, Yes vista had issues when it first came out, but that was just because microsoft rushed the product without enough suitable drivers and software patches to make programs run. Ever since service pack 1 for vista was released, its been much more stable.

Vista is not going away, and within 2 years, you'll be hard pressed to find software that does not require vista as an os.

[SephYuyX]

I had this problem long ago w/ a friend. It's an HP thing. HP has the BIOS and HD set up so that XP cant be installed. The BIOS is the biggest issue, and since I did it when all this was new, I never found a solution, but googling 'install xp on vista hp 0x000007B' found this http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3230632.php

Dunno a straight answer for you though.

[Korietsu]

ask him what he doesnt like about it. If he cant answer that, then install vista and tell him to suck it up and use it. If he's having someone else install the operating system for him, hes an average user thats joined the "I dont want vista, but I dont really know why club" that just wont die.

People fear what they dont understand, Yes vista had issues when it first came out, but that was just because microsoft rushed the product without enough suitable drivers and software patches to make programs run. Ever since service pack 1 for vista was released, its been much more stable.

Vista is not going away, and within 2 years, you'll be hard pressed to find software that does not require vista as an os.

That's when you realize that you need to switch to OSX. I've had nothing but problems with vista on friends machines, and watching it slow down to molasses with simple things as opening the widget toolbar was amazing. So much with driver incompatibility, software incompatibility etc its really annoying within my field of work and their field of work.

[Kohan]

If he's having someone else install the operating system for him, hes an average user thats joined the "I dont want vista, but I dont really know why club" that just wont die.

People fear what they dont understand, Yes vista had issues when it first came out, but that was just because microsoft rushed the product without enough suitable drivers and software patches to make programs run. Ever since service pack 1 for vista was released, its been much more stable.

Not nearly enough for it to matter that much, especially if you're one concerned with all the performance you can get.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/14295...vista_sp1.html

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2125616,00.asp

http://blogs.computerworld.com/using..._of_xp_is_dumb

http://blogs.computerworld.com/windows_xp_or_vista

There was also a great article that involved an interview with some of Microsoft's internal workers, and I believe it was in a paper issue of PC Magazine, but it may have been another. Regardless.

Even if the user may not be tech-oriented enough to notice the performance gains, that does not mean they aren't entitled to them. There's no reason to use Vista over XP for now, unless your hard-on for DX 10 (which in that aforementioned interview, Microsoft expressed regret at not making it XP-compatible) cannot be tamed otherwise. Will it be required later, perhaps? Yes, but that's "later." Not now.

Here's a few articles that may help on the uninstall beside what others have suggested:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/...icleId=9040318

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2287685,00.asp

[Vuitton]

I figured out what to do.

I created an image of Windows XP slipstreamed with SP3 and the RAID and S-ATA drivers relevant to my chipset (geforce 8200). This allowed the XP installation to load the SATA Controller which allowed XP to access the hard drive and begin the format process and installation.

I used nLite to slipstream everything.

http://www.nliteos.com/

I used this guide to figure out what I needed to do:

Integration of NVIDIA nForce Raid (and SATA) drivers, Guide and help for XP and W2k3 (32/64bit)

http://www.msfn.org/board/Integratio...-S-t51140.html

Thanks for everyone's feedback!

[Obiron]

ask him what he doesnt like about it. If he cant answer that, then install vista and tell him to suck it up and use it. If he's having someone else install the operating system for him, hes an average user thats joined the "I dont want vista, but I dont really know why club" that just wont die.

People fear what they dont understand, Yes vista had issues when it first came out, but that was just because microsoft rushed the product without enough suitable drivers and software patches to make programs run. Ever since service pack 1 for vista was released, its been much more stable.

Vista is not going away, and within 2 years, you'll be hard pressed to find software that does not require vista as an os.

Sorry, I just have to point out that Vista IS going away. Windows 7 is planned for release in 2010 (some rumors actually say it may happen next year). The beta will supposedly be out next month. WSUS software (handles windows updates for a network) has already been updated to include Windows 7 (I would include a SS if I was at work right now, but I can say that I have personally seen Windows 7 listed in the software after a recent update). Vista was never planned to be long termed. It was rushed out to hold people over while they work on Windows 7. Think of Vista as the new Windows ME. Stick with XP until 7 is available.