Downgrading Vista to XP -- SATA

[hogyu]

I can't wait for several apps I need to catch up with Vista -- please, no
flames about why I want to do this.

I have a laptop with no floppy and a SATA disk. I have a SATA driver for
Vista, and also have the other drivers I need for the laptop. But without a
floppy (and I'm not sure that an outboard floppy would work, because I would
have to load the driver at boot-up), I can't get started installing XP.

About the only remedy I can think of would be to slipstream the XP SATA
driver on the XP disk. I've already made a slipstream SP2 disk from my
original retail XP disk, so I know how to follow directions to make a
slipstream disk. But I don't know enough about the process to know how to
integrate an additional driver in a slipstream disk.

If anybody could provide cookbook directions or a link to a site that would
show me how, I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

A Windows Vista SATA driver would not be compatible
with Windows XP. I would recommend contacting the
manufacturer of your laptop to find out if it is compatible
with Windows XP as the BIOS may only be optimized
for use with Windows Vista.

As an alternative, if you're currently running Windows Vista
Ultimate or Business edition, you may wish to look
into installing a Virtual PC.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

----------------------------------------------------------------------

:

I can't wait for several apps I need to catch up with Vista -- please, no
flames about why I want to do this.

I have a laptop with no floppy and a SATA disk. I have a SATA driver for
Vista, and also have the other drivers I need for the laptop. But without a
floppy (and I'm not sure that an outboard floppy would work, because I would
have to load the driver at boot-up), I can't get started installing XP.

About the only remedy I can think of would be to slipstream the XP SATA
driver on the XP disk. I've already made a slipstream SP2 disk from my
original retail XP disk, so I know how to follow directions to make a
slipstream disk. But I don't know enough about the process to know how to
integrate an additional driver in a slipstream disk.

If anybody could provide cookbook directions or a link to a site that would
show me how, I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

 

[John Barnes]

You say you have the SATA driver for Vista. You are going to need the SATA
driver for XP as well as XP drivers for any other onboard hardware.

 

[hogyu]

Sorry, Carey. I misspoke or mistyped. I have an XP SATA driver from the
manufacturer's Web site. And the Vista version is Home Premium.

 

[hogyu]

My apologies again. I have the SATA driver for XP, and all the other drivers
I need for my laptop for XP. The computer is not cutting-edge, and XP
drivers are available for everything else, once I get the SATA problem
solved. Maybe I should re-post the question.

Thanks.

 

[Saucy]

My apologies again. I have the SATA driver for XP, and all the other
drivers I need for my laptop for XP. The computer is not cutting-edge, and
XP drivers are available for everything else, once I get the SATA problem
solved. Maybe I should re-post the question.

Thanks.

I tried to load Vista on one of my older laptops. Since it has only 256MB
RAM the Vista installation routine refused to install Vista. I searched the
'Net some and found a solution .. only to find others reporting that the
solution comes riddled with malware. So I just contented myself to let that
one just run NT5.x and not bother it with Vista.

Saucy

 

[John Barnes]

Hope someone can point you to the instructions for slipstreaming. Your
backup is that many have had success with a USB floppy. Most recent BIOS
support it.

 

[David A. Spicer]

You should be able to use a USB floppy drive to install the driver.

 

[hogyu]

Perhaps so; is there a difference between a USB thumb drive and a USB
floppy? Does the floppy come up as drive a:\ and that's what the install
program is looking for?

Problem is that money isn't exactly flowing from my faucets, and I'm
reluctant to fork over the cash for a floppy drive I hope I'll only have to
use once -- and I'll have to buy it not knowing if it will work or not.

I guess I should have bought an older refurbished computer rather than this
new laptop; it's hard to think of everything, and I had no idea that a) a
SATA drive would be a problem and b) so many software makers would force you
to buy upgrades to use their programs on Vista or drag their heels on coming
out with Vista-compatible releases.

 

[John Barnes]

If you use Google you should be able to find instructions on slipstreaming
the driver you need. Whatever the reason, XP and prior versions required
driver installation via floppy or slipstream.

 

[David A. Spicer]

Yes, the USB floppy comes up as A;

This link should help:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

One question, have you already tried installing XP? The drivers are not
always needed.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

All 3 of my PC's hard drives connnect to a PCI IDE controller
card, and I load the driver for the card from a CD during the
early installation phase of my XP Pro. Why not just put the
SATA driver on a CD?

*TimDaniels*

If you use Google you should be able to find instructions on
slipstreaming the driver you need. Whatever the reason, XP
and prior versions required driver installation via floppy or
slipstream.

Perhaps so; is there a difference between a USB thumb drive
and a USB floppy? Does the floppy come up as drive a:\ and
that's what the install program is looking for?

Problem is that money isn't exactly flowing from my faucets,
and I'm reluctant to fork over the cash for a floppy drive I
hope I'll only have to use once -- and I'll have to buy it not
knowing if it will work or not.

[.....]

You should be able to use a USB floppy drive to install
the driver.

:
I have a laptop with no floppy and a SATA disk. I have
a SATA driver for Vista, and also have the other drivers
I need for the laptop. But without a floppy (and I'm not
sure that an outboard floppy would work, because I would
have to load the driver at boot-up), I can't get started installing XP.

About the only remedy I can think of would be to slipstream
the XP SATA driver on the XP disk. I've already made a
slipstream SP2 disk from my original retail XP disk, so I
know how to follow directions to make a slipstream disk.
But I don't know enough about the process to know how to integrate an
additional driver in a slipstream disk.

 

[John Barnes]

Some books say it will find it on a CD and most say no. Personally it never
worked for me, but if you have two cd drives or want to try swapping disks
at F6 time, it is worth a try.

All 3 of my PC's hard drives connnect to a PCI IDE controller
card, and I load the driver for the card from a CD during the
early installation phase of my XP Pro. Why not just put the
SATA driver on a CD?

*TimDaniels*

If you use Google you should be able to find instructions on
slipstreaming the driver you need. Whatever the reason, XP
and prior versions required driver installation via floppy or
slipstream.

Perhaps so; is there a difference between a USB thumb drive
and a USB floppy? Does the floppy come up as drive a:\ and
that's what the install program is looking for?

Problem is that money isn't exactly flowing from my faucets,
and I'm reluctant to fork over the cash for a floppy drive I
hope I'll only have to use once -- and I'll have to buy it not
knowing if it will work or not.

[.....]

:
You should be able to use a USB floppy drive to install
the driver.

:
I have a laptop with no floppy and a SATA disk. I have
a SATA driver for Vista, and also have the other drivers
I need for the laptop. But without a floppy (and I'm not
sure that an outboard floppy would work, because I would
have to load the driver at boot-up), I can't get started installing
XP.

About the only remedy I can think of would be to slipstream
the XP SATA driver on the XP disk. I've already made a
slipstream SP2 disk from my original retail XP disk, so I
know how to follow directions to make a slipstream disk.
But I don't know enough about the process to know how to integrate an
additional driver in a slipstream disk.

 

[hogyu]

Thanks.

Yes, I tried installing XP once, and got an error message about no hard
drive being installed. I also tried a thumb drive and outboard HDD with the
drivers during install, with no luck.

The Nlite install sounds simple; my only concern is that the driver package
from Gateway decompresses to a setup file, a bunch of .dll files and a .inf
file or two, plus two cabinets that WinRAR can't open. I'm not sure if the
setup disk with the driver package slipstreamed will be able to manipulate
the driver installation, but I'll find out soon, I guess.