vista to xp..

[Guest]

i dont understand all the pc gibberish from any of these posts. can someone
just plesase tell me the easiest way to do it. buy xp.. then what?

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hope? Take it to somebody who knows how to clean install an operating
system? Talk to somebody locally who can get you over the problems you have
with Vista?

i dont understand all the pc gibberish from any of these posts. can someone
just plesase tell me the easiest way to do it. buy xp.. then what?

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Tom Porterfield]

i dont understand all the pc gibberish from any of these posts. can someone
just plesase tell me the easiest way to do it. buy xp.. then what?

The only way to go from Vista to XP is to do a clean install of XP.
That means booting with the XP CD, formatting the partition with Vista,
installing XP, adding any additional device drivers that you need, and
reinstalling any applications that you need.

See http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html#steps for a
full list of the steps you need to take.

The overall process is fairly straightforward, but can seem daunting if
you've never done it before. If you are uncomfortable with following
the steps outlined in the above article, take the PC to a local, trusted
computer shop and have them do the work for you.

 

[UnswoleLilDude]

If you upgraded from XP to Vista you can un-install Vista and go back to XP
by following the instructions on the guide below.
http://www.maximumpcguides.com/uninstall-windows-vista/

 

[Lang Murphy]

i dont understand all the pc gibberish from any of these posts. can someone
just plesase tell me the easiest way to do it. buy xp.. then what?

Call BestBuy's Geek Squad or some local PC tech company. If you don't
understand the "gibberish" here, then you need to bring in a consultant to
help you.

Lang

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

I think that Sara is looking for a one button remedy to her woes.. she needs
the services of a local computer guy/gal..

I personally posted an answer to this just a few minutes ago and I feel
my answer might help you our Sara so I am going to post it again on this
thread.

I'd personally recommend you launch up vista. Type in compmgmt.msc into
your start search. Select 'Disk Management' located under 'Storage'.
Find your main drive. Right click on it and choose the option Shrink' if
its available. Shrink it by 20-30gb. Now you'll have unallocated space.

Right click on the unallocated space and format it as ntfs. Grab a
winxp disc and install it onto the new blank partition.

If worse comes to worse and you can't get xp back on, at least you'll
still have Vista. Plus, you'll have the added advantage of dual-boot
when your all said and done. That way maybe 3-4 years down the line or 6
months (depending on your level of optimism), you'll have Vista already
installed when Vista's teething pains are over and until then have your
familiar xp readily available.

P.S. After you install Windows XP, you'll need to bootrec /nt60 /f all
to restore your Windows Vista bootloader from a vista setup > repair my
computer > command prompt. Once you done that, restart and you'll boot
into Vista. Once booted into windows determine which drive your win xp
shows as being installed on, edit your boot.ini on your win xp drive to
delete the part that says disk(1)partitoin(0) etc...and replace it with
X:\ where x is the letter of your xp install partition within Vista.

Open an administrative command prompt.
type in bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "WindowsXPMyFavoriteBaby"

(Note in quotes you can enter any description you want to show on your
boot loader)

bcdedit /set device partition=X:\

Note x is the letter where your xp intall partition show as within
Vista.

bcdedit /set path \ntldr

Ta da! Your dual boot with Windows xp is setup. Nice, simple easy.

***Important note***
If compmgmt.msc doesn't let you shrink your partition, its cause
compmgmt.msc's partitioning tools in all honesty suck. In which case you
'get' by whatever means you choose 'Partition Magic' or a similar
program and shrink your partition that way.

Hope this helps you out
Wes.

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/