Installing WinXP on a disk where W7 created partitions?

[Bobi_Kreeg]

Hello. 😉
I want to go back to WinXP because my old laptop lacks sound drivers for W7.

I currently have two partitions (C+D) on my HDD, both NTFS and created by W7. W7 is installed on C and my music and other data is on D.
If I reformmat C partition and install WinXP on it will I still be able to access my files on D part.?

I'm afraid that I might somehow lose my data if the NTFS partitions aren't backwards compatible.


(I hope you can understand my question. Sorry for my bad english. :ninja🙂

 

[R0H1T]

Yes, you can also install XP on top of your current win7 build that'll push the earlier installation & program files in a windows.old folder though it can get messy if you have a lot of folders on C drive in odd locations that aren't created by windows default setup.

 

[Harvey]

If everything else in Win 7 works on your machine, and you like it, before you blow it off, you may want to check Device Manager for the make and model/series of the sound chip in your machine and go to the manufacturer's site for the latest Win7 driver.

It may be different from the one you have for XP, and, if it works, you won't have to re-install XP. It won't take much time, and if it doesn't work, you can still wipe out Win 7 and install XP.

Good luck. 🙂

 

[hamunaptra]

yeah, if you simply boot up your XP CD install disk. It will show you the 2 partitions currently on the drive. Select the OS partition, select option to format it then off ya go =)
It wont touch the data on the 2nd partition and it will still be usable.

 

[DrGreen2007]

Doesnt W7 change the boot loader on the HDD so that XP wont boot, doesnt deleting that delete the partition info?

 

[Matt1970]

yeah, if you simply boot up your XP CD install disk. It will show you the 2 partitions currently on the drive. Select the OS partition, select option to format it then off ya go =)
It wont touch the data on the 2nd partition and it will still be usable.

It "shouldn't" touch the data on the 2nd partition. However I had to explain to a customer one time that XP just decided to format both hard drives during an install. I would still back up any critical data.

 

[hamunaptra]

Doesnt W7 change the boot loader on the HDD so that XP wont boot, doesnt deleting that delete the partition info?

naw, you can actuall boot winxp w/ NT6.0 MBR & partition boot sector just fine =)
Upon installing XP, it will rewrite the MBR & partition boot sector back into NT5.0 & ntldr respectively.

 

[Ketchup]

Make sure your data is backed up, no matter if you make the change or not. In most cases, the boot loader will be on the partition with Windows 7, so if you format the Windows partition, it should write the XP once in its place. Worst case should be that the file is not remove correctly, and you will need to chose XP from the load screen after the install. There are apps out there than can fix this though.

What steps have you taken to find the sound drivers, and what model laptop is it?

 

[tosaytheleast]

I'm very positive that you can have full access with the files you have in disk D. Just make sure that when you boot with your installation CD, you choose Disk C. With that, you replace your Windows 7 OS but your Disk D will remain untouched.

 

[Red Squirrel]

To be on the safe side I'd just backup everything to another drive. Chances are it will work fine, but who knows if the XP installer might decide to overwrite stuff, so best to play it safe.