trouble with reverting back to original os

[Guest]

got my laptop used its a Dell Inspiron E1505 currently has vista home premium
want to go back to xp media center 2005 I have no software for either version
is that something i need to fix my problem. Not sure the software will help.
Due to my laptop does not show my cd\rw-dvd drive. Please help me out on
how to fix this issue. Not a lot of knowledge on these type of issues. thanks

 

[Claymore]

got my laptop used its a Dell Inspiron E1505 currently has vista home premium
want to go back to xp media center 2005 I have no software for either version
is that something i need to fix my problem. Not sure the software will help.
Due to my laptop does not show my cd\rw-dvd drive. Please help me out on
how to fix this issue. Not a lot of knowledge on these type of issues. thanks

Hi,

To install another operating system you will (obviously) need to
purchase an installation CD (not an Upgrade version). To replace Vista
you would need to format the drive and then install XP.

For the missing optical drive, two things to try:

Go to Device Manager, right-click on the CD drive and uninstall it.
Restart the computer.

If this doesn't work:

Copy the text below between the dotted lines, but not the dotted lines
themselves. Open Notepad and paste it in. Save the result in a
suitable location as drives.reg - making sure that the default .txt
extension doesn't appear in the file name (Save as type = All Files).
Double-click on the saved drives.reg file to merge the contents.
Restart.

----------------------- cut after this line
-----------------------------

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-
E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]
"UpperFilters"=-
"LowerFilters"=-

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdr4_2K]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdralw2k]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdudf]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UdfReadr]

------------------------cut before this line
-----------------------------

 

[Patrick Keenan]

got my laptop used its a Dell Inspiron E1505 currently has vista home
premium
want to go back to xp media center 2005 I have no software for either
version
is that something i need to fix my problem.

If the problem is that you need to downgrade, yes, you need the software.

Some Vista versions, not all, have downgrade rights but these aren't always
easy to invoke.

Not sure the software will help.

You can't reinstall the OS without it.

However, IIRC, Media Center was not available except installed on a system,
so you may not be able to buy a valid install disk for it.

Due to my laptop does not show my cd\rw-dvd drive. Please help me out on
how to fix this issue. Not a lot of knowledge on these type of issues.
thanks

Borrow any other bootable XP or Linux or Vista CD for the test. Then,
power down the system and restart it, paying close attention to the message
about the key you need to press to get into Setup, or the BIOS. Look
through these to find the listed drives and the boot sequence. If the CD
drive isn't listed, it may have failed or have come loose.

If it is, find the boot sequence control and change it to CD first. Save
and exit, putting the bootable CD in before the restart. On restart, the
system should offer to boot from CD with a keypress; press any key and once
Setup starts, you can just cancel. At this point, you know that the CD
drive is functioning.

You will also need to take the service tag number from the bottom of the
laptop and go to the Dell support site, and download and burn to CD all the
XP drivers for that laptop BEFORE you start the XP install. As soon as
the XP install is complete, you will need to install these drivers before
you go any further.

If there are no XP drivers available, you are proceeding at your own risk.

HTH
-pk