Windows XP Unable to remove Vista and install XP Sony VAIO FZ140E

[morland]

Hi,

I ended up buying a Sony VAIO FZ140E which came with Vista. I was not expecting to face any problems and I inserted my genuine XP CD in the DVD drive and started the system.... Everything appeared to be working as it does when you are installing XP on a new machine UNTIL i got a windows which basically said that no internal drives can be found... and press F3 to exit.

Am I now stuck with Vista? I don't want it, hate it, and want XP on my Laptop. Can someone PLEASE help.

Thanks.

 

[Ian]

I'm pleased you've found a laptop I'm surprised the setup can't find any internal drives, as I would have thought the laptop uses a standard IDE drive and chipset - you may have to find some drivers that you can tell the Windows setup to use to find the drive.

Do you know the detailed specs of the machine?

 

[Spezi]

I'm pleased you've found a laptop I'm surprised the setup can't find any internal drives, as I would have thought the laptop uses a standard IDE drive and chipset - you may have to find some drivers that you can tell the Windows setup to use to find the drive.

Do you know the detailed specs of the machine?

My guess is that you need some drivers installed at the early stage of the setup process where it asks that question as it sounds just like what happens to me if I forget to install the SATA drivers.

I'm not sure about how they'd be installed on a laptop though since I have my necessary drivers on floppy disks.

 

[Abarbarian]

My guess is that you need some drivers installed at the early stage of the setup process where it asks that question as it sounds just like what happens to me if I forget to install the SATA drivers.

I'm not sure about how they'd be installed on a laptop though since I have my necessary drivers on floppy disks.

You could use something like this

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.100-2226.aspx

 

[morland]

Hi Ian, Spezi, and Abarbarian

Thanks for your replies.

Ian, I was also glad when I bought it but so far all the excitement has gone down the drain and what's hurting at the moment is that I exceeded my budget way too far...

Based on my web searching so far it does appear to have something to do with the 4200 RPM SATA harddisk that came with the laptop and probably my original XP CD (about year+ old) does not have drivers for SATA?????

I'll check the URL provided by Abarbarian. Maybe I'll find a solution there...

 

[Spezi]

Hi Ian, Spezi, and Abarbarian

Thanks for your replies.

Ian, I was also glad when I bought it but so far all the excitement has gone down the drain and what's hurting at the moment is that I exceeded my budget way too far...

Based on my web searching so far it does appear to have something to do with the 4200 RPM SATA harddisk that came with the laptop and probably my original XP CD (about year+ old) does not have drivers for SATA?????

I'll check the URL provided by Abarbarian. Maybe I'll find a solution there...

I think you're on the right track because so far any motherboard that I've installed a SATA hard drive on required me to insert a floppy with the appropriate SATA drivers for that motherboard before getting to the stage where the operating system actually installs.

I think you have to watch for the text that says press F2 or some such and at that time you have to give it the correct drivers but there again I'm only accustomed to doing it on desktops. (get you're mind out of the gutter people )

 

[morland]

No progress yet from my side...will post back in a few days once the topic is history.... i just hope that if I can get Xp installe and working, I will be able to install all the drivers (which I have downloaded from Sony's site) and everything will work just fine and without loosing any functionality????