Downgrade

[beermatt1981]

I want to downgraded from XP Home to Windows 2000 on my laptop as I
want to use the version xp on the laptop on my PC.

Problem is my laptop has no internal drives, the external floppy drive
is broken and the cd rom works from a PCMI usb card which is not
bootable

If I buy a new floppy drive could I then run the rest of the setup from
the usb cd drive?

I have a dell Latitude CS laptop.

 

[DL]

If your version of winxp home is an OEM copy, ie Dell it may be locked to
the laptop and as such you could'nt install it on a different sys.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I want to downgraded from XP Home to Windows 2000 on my laptop as I
want to use the version xp on the laptop on my PC.

Problem is my laptop has no internal drives, the external floppy drive
is broken and the cd rom works from a PCMI usb card which is not
bootable

If I buy a new floppy drive could I then run the rest of the setup from
the usb cd drive?

I have a dell Latitude CS laptop.

There are to aspects here: The licensing aspect (which DL dealt with)
and the technical aspect.

The techical side involves removing the laptop's disk and connecting
it to another Windows PC for preloading. Unless you are experienced
in such matters you should ask a computer service shop to do this
for you.

 

[beermatt1981]

There are to aspects here: The licensing aspect (which DL dealt with)
and the technical aspect.

The techical side involves removing the laptop's disk and connecting
it to another Windows PC for preloading. Unless you are experienced
in such matters you should ask a computer service shop to do this
for you.

Thanks for the helpful advice,

My version of XP is retail shouldnt be a problem with licenses. I
thought about the preloading option but the hard drive pins for disk
look different to a normal 2.5'' drives in other laptops (I have an IDE
to 2.5" adaptor).

What I was wondering in my original question was that If I managed to
boot from floppy, would the O/S then search the machine for the CDROM
on the PCMI USB card so the install can go ahead?

If not, perhaps I will cut my losses and just buy another version of
windows.

Your thoughts are appreciated

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the helpful advice,

My version of XP is retail shouldnt be a problem with licenses. I
thought about the preloading option but the hard drive pins for disk
look different to a normal 2.5'' drives in other laptops (I have an IDE
to 2.5" adaptor).

What I was wondering in my original question was that If I managed to
boot from floppy, would the O/S then search the machine for the CDROM
on the PCMI USB card so the install can go ahead?

If not, perhaps I will cut my losses and just buy another version of
windows.

Your thoughts are appreciated

I would be extremely surprised if your 2.5" disk pinout was different
from any other 2.5" disk pinout. These connections are standardised
globally. I have used IDE to 2.5" adapters on many occasions and
they always worked. Note that you will fry your disk instantly if
you connect the adapter back to front.

Booting from a floppy boot disk is unlikely to work. I assume you're
thinking about a DOS boot disk, and DOS does not know about
USB devices, hence you won't be able to read your Win2000 CD.
You could, of course, make yourself a network boot diskette but
unless you have experience in making such a disk you are likely to
spend several hours on this job.

 

[beermatt1981]

I would be extremely surprised if your 2.5" disk pinout was different
from any other 2.5" disk pinout. These connections are standardised
globally. I have used IDE to 2.5" adapters on many occasions and
they always worked. Note that you will fry your disk instantly if
you connect the adapter back to front.

Booting from a floppy boot disk is unlikely to work. I assume you're
thinking about a DOS boot disk, and DOS does not know about
USB devices, hence you won't be able to read your Win2000 CD.
You could, of course, make yourself a network boot diskette but
unless you have experience in making such a disk you are likely to
spend several hours on this job.

I was going to use a Windows 2000 boot disk that is available on the
install cd and on on the internet - would this not contain USB drivers
or would this still count as a DOS disk?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I was going to use a Windows 2000 boot disk that is available on the
install cd and on on the internet - would this not contain USB drivers
or would this still count as a DOS disk?

No, the four Win2000 installation diskettes are not DOS disks.
They do load various USB drivers but whether the setup
program will then read the Win2000 CD in your USB CD
drive I do not know - I've never tried and I don't have a USB
CD drive.