Revert to XP from Vista?

[puternoobie]

I need someone with a fair degree of expertise to tell me if I can revert from Vista to XP.

I had several computers before settling on this one, an HP Pavilion desktop, 4.8G HD, 2942M RAM, bought last Oct. I've been back and forth with whether to take it back and get an XP machine but I'm told XP is passe, you can't get support, blah, blah, blah. No matter. I want my XP back! I've got the installation disks from a former computer that I had before this one (it was a refurb and died after only 2 months).

What I want to do is replace the existing Vista with the old XP but I'm told by various people that I can or I can't, i.e. the machine's architecture won't handle it. Vista has disappeared many of my files; for instance in my Clip Art file all the contents have been emptied except for about 2. The folders are still there but all that's inside is a Resource Fork.

I've thought I'd make the best of a bad situation but darn it I don't want to do that. I should be happy with my computer. Perhaps I could partition my hard disk? Use Vista on part and XP on part? I don't know. Maybe that's a stupid idea.

HELP!!!!!

Moved from Technical Issues.
Sr Moderator allisolm

 

[VirtualLarry]

In order to install XP, you need to ensure that you have drivers for the various hardware in the computer that will work with XP.

Once you have those (put them on a flash drive), then it's not hard to install XP.

One other caveat has to do with the mobo bios and SATA/IDE settings. Most "normal" mobos, allow you to select IDE/AHCI/RAID modes. Some OEM mobos (especially in laptops), that have been designed for systems intended for Vista, only allow you to select AHCI mode. They dont allow you to select IDE.

If that is the case, then you need to make sure that you have a REAL FLOPPY DRIVE installed in the computer, and you need to download the AHCI drivers to a floppy drive, and press "F6" when prompted by the XP setup, and you need to supply drivers on a floppy when prompted.

The reason for all of this is that XP does not natively support AHCI mode for SATA disk controllers, only IDE mode. Vista supports either. So you have to load a special driver for XP during setup, if your BIOS doesn't allow you to select "IDE" mode for your disk controllers.

 

[puternoobie]

Whew! I don't understand but about 2 words of what you said. Can I take the computer to Best Buy and have this done? Or is there some other way? I thought I was fairly knowledgeable but this is way beyond my understanding!

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: puternoobie
Can I take the computer to Best Buy and have this done?

No, Best Buy will not get involved in that. They do not sell Windows XP and will not take responsibility for ensuring that everything works as intended.

Or is there some other way?

You could buy an XP license from NewEgg (you cannot use the disks you have on a different machine) and take it with the machine to an independent system builder and see if he could help you but...

I thought I was fairly knowledgeable but this is way beyond my understanding!

If you didn't understand what VirtualLarry said, you should probably stop talking about downgrading the machine and take a class somewhere to learn more about how to use Vista properly.

 

[AdamK47]

Vista is evil! I bet it placed DRM in the files you lost and that DRM had timed explosives that wiped those files out at a later time.

 

[chemwiz]

What model is your HP? And what version of Vista does it have?

 

[puternoobie]

Windows Vista Home Premium (x64) Service Pack 2 (build 6002)
HP-Pavilion FK792AA-ABA a6600f

This is what Belarc says.

(PS: Larry, I don't much appreciate your condescension. Computers are supposed to be fun if you don't have to make your living with them. When you spend most of your time ironing out problems, that ain't fun.)

 

[AdamK47]

Originally posted by: puternoobie
Windows Vista Home Premium (x64) Service Pack 2 (build 6002)
HP-Pavilion FK792AA-ABA a6600f

This is what Belarc says.

(PS: Larry, I don't much appreciate your condescension. Computers are supposed to be fun if you don't have to make your living with them. When you spend most of your time ironing out problems, that ain't fun.)

and 101 days later...

 

[Meghan54]

Originally posted by: puternoobie
Windows Vista Home Premium (x64) Service Pack 2 (build 6002)
HP-Pavilion FK792AA-ABA a6600f

This is what Belarc says.

(PS: Larry, I don't much appreciate your condescension. Computers are supposed to be fun if you don't have to make your living with them. When you spend most of your time ironing out problems, that ain't fun.)

VLarry wasn't being condescending, was just trying to explain what a downgrade from an existing Vista install to XP may entail.

As for the rest of your ps.........Shoulda bought a Mac.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Honestly, Vista doesn't "disapppear" files and if files are disappearing it would be more indicative of a driver issue or a hardware problem such as a hard-drive failure. Neither does Vista use or create a Resource Fork. Resource Forks are a Mac legacy. It sounds like some old Macs files were transferred to your PC along with the Resource Fork folder. I've seen it happen, but not since the Win95/98 era.

This is not intended to insult you but your problems seem more like user error than OS error.

 

[RebateMonger]

puternoobie:

Converting a Vista desktop to XP is probably not for a beginner. XP will probably be missing some drivers that you'll have to locate. And HP may not even have published XP drivers for that computer.

Vista is hardly perfect, but it shouldn't be deleting data on its own. The data is probably still there, or if it's gone, it's probably human-caused. (Trying to be polite)

The best thing you can do is what I'd recommend to anybody:
Learn how to make backups of your computer (or data) and make those backups. The easiest way is to buy an external hard drive and use Vista's built-in backup software or use the software that comes with the external drive (sometimes) or buy advanced backup software, like Acronis' TrueImage or StorageCraft's ShadowProtect.

 

[rchiu]

Originally posted by: puternoobie
Whew! I don't understand but about 2 words of what you said. Can I take the computer to Best Buy and have this done? Or is there some other way? I thought I was fairly knowledgeable but this is way beyond my understanding!

vlarry is being overly analytical. It's not that complicated since you have a HP Pavilion, just go to HP website and look for drivers for your model. (before you decide to upgrade) If you can find XP drivers for your computer, then you should be fine. Download them and burn it on cd.

Copy the files you need on USB/externl HDD, re-install XP (you cannot upgrade/or downgrade, you have to do a fresh install), install drivers, install applications, copy ur files back, and you should be good to go.

If you wanna be safe, vista has a backup and restore function you may want to look into just in case the xp downgrade fails.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: rchiu

Originally posted by: puternoobie
Whew! I don't understand but about 2 words of what you said. Can I take the computer to Best Buy and have this done? Or is there some other way? I thought I was fairly knowledgeable but this is way beyond my understanding!

vlarry is being overly analytical. It's not that complicated since you have a HP Pavilion, just go to HP website and look for drivers for your model. (before you decide to upgrade) If you can find XP drivers for your computer, then you should be fine. Download them and burn it on cd.

Copy the files you need on USB/externl HDD, re-install XP (you cannot upgrade/or downgrade, you have to do a fresh install), install drivers, install applications, copy ur files back, and you should be good to go.

If you wanna be safe, vista has a backup and restore function you may want to look into just in case the xp downgrade fails.

No - Virtual Larry is correct.

XP has no native support for AHCI based SATA controller. Thus unless the system supports an IDE mode for the SATA Controller, it will not find the hard drive when installing XP.

You need to either have a bootable floppy disk drive with the AHCI/RAID drivers on it, or you need to slipstream the drivers with a Windows install.

That being said, the problem sounds like:
A. The OP bought into all the uneducated whining about Vista and assumed this is one of the reasons. Certainly not his/her fault!
B. A user problem - an OS doesn't simply delete files.

OP - stay with Vista - unless you have some rare software incompatibility, there is 0 reason to use XP.

Create a new thread, post the problems you are having with Vista, and we will be more than happy to help you with it

 

[rchiu]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: rchiu

Originally posted by: puternoobie
Whew! I don't understand but about 2 words of what you said. Can I take the computer to Best Buy and have this done? Or is there some other way? I thought I was fairly knowledgeable but this is way beyond my understanding!

vlarry is being overly analytical. It's not that complicated since you have a HP Pavilion, just go to HP website and look for drivers for your model. (before you decide to upgrade) If you can find XP drivers for your computer, then you should be fine. Download them and burn it on cd.

Copy the files you need on USB/externl HDD, re-install XP (you cannot upgrade/or downgrade, you have to do a fresh install), install drivers, install applications, copy ur files back, and you should be good to go.

If you wanna be safe, vista has a backup and restore function you may want to look into just in case the xp downgrade fails.

No - Virtual Larry is correct.

XP has no native support for AHCI based SATA controller. Thus unless the system supports an IDE mode for the SATA Controller, it will not find the hard drive when installing XP.

You need to either have a bootable floppy disk drive with the AHCI/RAID drivers on it, or you need to slipstream the drivers with a Windows install.

That being said, the problem sounds like:
A. The OP bought into all the uneducated whining about Vista and assumed this is one of the reasons. Certainly not his/her fault!
B. A user problem - an OS doesn't simply delete files.

OP - stay with Vista - unless you have some rare software incompatibility, there is 0 reason to use XP.

Create a new thread, post the problems you are having with Vista, and we will be more than happy to help you with it

This is an HP Pavilion we are talking about, do you think HP even give the options for people to play around AHCI/IDE settings in BIOS? It's either setup one way or the other, and if HP website give you XP drivers, then the OP is good to go.

And sorry to tell you the complain about vista is not uneducated whinning (although lots of vista fanboy would like to think so), there are tons of people out there complaining, enough for big PC vendors like Dell to provide free downgrade to anyone who ask. This is a free country and if the OP wanna revert to XP like hundreds of thousand of people who had done so already, they have all the right to do so without being told that they are whinning or uneducated.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: rchiu


And sorry to tell you the complain about vista is not uneducated whinning (although lots of vista fanboy would like to think so), there are tons of people out there complaining, enough for big PC vendors like Dell to provide free downgrade to anyone who ask. This is a free country and if the OP wanna revert to XP like hundreds of thousand of people who had done so already, they have all the right to do so without being told that they are whinning or uneducated.

Vista doesn't delete files on it's own accord, period. Saying it does is uneducated.

 

[rchiu]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: rchiu


And sorry to tell you the complain about vista is not uneducated whinning (although lots of vista fanboy would like to think so), there are tons of people out there complaining, enough for big PC vendors like Dell to provide free downgrade to anyone who ask. This is a free country and if the OP wanna revert to XP like hundreds of thousand of people who had done so already, they have all the right to do so without being told that they are whinning or uneducated.

Vista doesn't delete files on it's own accord, period. Saying it does is uneducated.

Vista delete it or Vista has a bad user interface that resulted in OP to delete it unknowningly or some other mysterious reason. who cares. The bottomline is XP worked fine for OP and Vista doesn't. Who cares if it's vista's problem, op's problem, third party's problem. it's his money, his machine, his computer usage pattern, who the heck are you guys to tell him how he should do stuff?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: rchiu
it's his money, his machine, his computer usage pattern, who the heck are you guys to tell him how he should do stuff?

Then let the person take their computer to GeekSquad, and hope for the best.

 

[Gamingphreek]

This is an HP Pavilion we are talking about, do you think HP even give the options for people to play around AHCI/IDE settings in BIOS? It's either setup one way or the other, and if HP website give you XP drivers, then the OP is good to go.

I do believe it is in there. It isn't an advanced option or anything. Most laptops have the option in there.

And sorry to tell you the complain about vista is not uneducated whinning (although lots of vista fanboy would like to think so), there are tons of people out there complaining, enough for big PC vendors like Dell to provide free downgrade to anyone who ask. This is a free country and if the OP wanna revert to XP like hundreds of thousand of people who had done so already, they have all the right to do so without being told that they are whinning or uneducated.

I didn't say all of the complaints are uneducated whining. I said the OP bought into all the people who were whining. Additionally, I never said the OP was whining or attacked him/her in any way.

Why in the world are you bringing up free country stuff? I offered my advice, which, I am sure, many people here would echo. He is free to take it or leave it. But I can assure you, the problem he is having is 100% not the OS!

Finally, I stand by what I said earlier. Unless you have an antiquated PC, a very low end PC (read: Netbook), or have a rare software compatibility, there is NO reason not to upgrade. The security, drivers, memory management (etc...) are all significantly improved on Vista.

Vista delete it or Vista has a bad user interface that resulted in OP to delete it unknowningly or some other mysterious reason. who cares. The bottomline is XP worked fine for OP and Vista doesn't. Who cares if it's vista's problem, op's problem, third party's problem. it's his money, his machine, his computer usage pattern, who the heck are you guys to tell him how he should do stuff?

Are you reading what you are typing!?

1. AN OS DOES NOT RANDOMLY DELETE FILES

2. So you are saying the interface is bad in such a way that the OP was tricked into deleting files? The delete key hasn't moved from OS to OS. The delete button still resides in a little menu below the title bar. I don't understand how the OS has ANYTHING at all to do with this.

Do you want to keep arguing this point with myself and everyone else? It is obvious that you need to do some reading up on operating systems before you comment again!

-Kevin

 

[puternoobie]

:shocked:

Whoa! Stop! Cease and desist! I didn't mean to start a flame war!

VLarry, my apologies for reading you wrong. It would help if you would reply in simpler terms. You too, Athena.

Meghan54, I used to use Macs. Wouldn't have anything else. But Apple priced them right out of the market for home users on social security. When my son offered me a free PC, I decided to join the rest of the world.

No, Tastes Like Chicken, Vista didn't really "disappear" my files. I found them shortly after that first post. But they were in entirely the wrong place. You're probably right about the Resource Fork comment. It was fairly easy to move files from one computer to another through several Macs and several more PCs. Whenever I tried to delete something, it was invariably the wrong thing so I didn't delete anything I didn't know for sure about.


Rebate Monger, I'm a huge fan of backups. Also of operator-error.

rchiu, tell me where to find information on Dell's downgrading service, please. And thanks for the support.

Uneducated whining? Not hardly. I used Macs from 1988 to 2004 or so, started with XP about the same time and found I liked it just fine. Almost joined the anti-Mac crowd, considering the improvement in service. Read everything I could get my hands on regarding Microsoft OS's, but I'm limited to only what I NEED to know. Thought I was ready for Vista and was determined it would NOT defeat me. But it's a whole different animal. My family is no stranger to computers. I have a son who runs the computer department for a major state university and another son, certified professional engineer, who's no slouch when it comes to computers. Neither my husband nor I have any college education but we can hold our own in most any discussion. He can repair anything that moves and I made a local name for myself in journalism.

So now, I'm calling an end to this "discussion" since it has devolved into a shouting match. Thanks to all of you for replying.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: rchiu

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: rchiu

Originally posted by: puternoobie
Whew! I don't understand but about 2 words of what you said. Can I take the computer to Best Buy and have this done? Or is there some other way? I thought I was fairly knowledgeable but this is way beyond my understanding!

vlarry is being overly analytical. It's not that complicated since you have a HP Pavilion, just go to HP website and look for drivers for your model. (before you decide to upgrade) If you can find XP drivers for your computer, then you should be fine. Download them and burn it on cd.

Copy the files you need on USB/externl HDD, re-install XP (you cannot upgrade/or downgrade, you have to do a fresh install), install drivers, install applications, copy ur files back, and you should be good to go.

If you wanna be safe, vista has a backup and restore function you may want to look into just in case the xp downgrade fails.

No - Virtual Larry is correct.

XP has no native support for AHCI based SATA controller. Thus unless the system supports an IDE mode for the SATA Controller, it will not find the hard drive when installing XP.

You need to either have a bootable floppy disk drive with the AHCI/RAID drivers on it, or you need to slipstream the drivers with a Windows install.

That being said, the problem sounds like:
A. The OP bought into all the uneducated whining about Vista and assumed this is one of the reasons. Certainly not his/her fault!
B. A user problem - an OS doesn't simply delete files.

OP - stay with Vista - unless you have some rare software incompatibility, there is 0 reason to use XP.

Create a new thread, post the problems you are having with Vista, and we will be more than happy to help you with it

This is an HP Pavilion we are talking about, do you think HP even give the options for people to play around AHCI/IDE settings in BIOS? It's either setup one way or the other, and if HP website give you XP drivers, then the OP is good to go.

And sorry to tell you the complain about vista is not uneducated whinning (although lots of vista fanboy would like to think so), there are tons of people out there complaining, enough for big PC vendors like Dell to provide free downgrade to anyone who ask. This is a free country and if the OP wanna revert to XP like hundreds of thousand of people who had done so already, they have all the right to do so without being told that they are whinning or uneducated.

That works both ways rchiu,we all know the bloat that OEM companies like HP,Dell etc.. stick on their PCs,its easy to point the finger and blame the OS,the truth is 99% of the time the issue is not the OS.

I'm waiting to see people point the finger at Win7,Win8 next.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Uneducated whining? Not hardly. I used Macs from 1988 to 2004 or so, started with XP about the same time and found I liked it just fine. Almost joined the anti-Mac crowd, considering the improvement in service. Read everything I could get my hands on regarding Microsoft OS's, except my mind doesn't run to things like BIOS, IDE, SATA and the like. That's internal and I don't NEED to know it. Thought I was ready for Vista and was determined it would NOT defeat me. But it's a whole different animal. I've taught myself things like making web pages, burning music CD's and DVDs, creating a Powerpoint presentation, the intricacies of Internet Explorer (64-bit vs. 32-bit), DSL vs. dialup and many other facets that my women friends consider foreign languages (Not sexist, just truth; I don't think it's any secret that men's minds seem more in tune with the more complicated aspects of computers.) I have a son who runs the computer department for a major state university and another son, certified professional engineer, who's no slouch when it comes to computers. Neither my husband nor I have any college education but we can hold our own in most any discussion. He can repair anything that moves and I made a local name for myself in journalism.

For the love of God - read my post instead of focusing in on key words.

Here, I'll quote it:

The OP bought into all the uneducated whining about Vista and assumed this is one of the reasons. Certainly not his/her fault!

Please note the bold part.

Additionally please note the end of my reply:

Create a new thread, post the problems you are having with Vista, and we will be more than happy to help you with it

Vista is no "different animal than XP" - I promise you! Once again, WHAT are you having problems with. There are a whole host of people here who are ready and willing to help you solve the problem - dealing with a complete reinstall as well as slipstreaming the drivers for a substantial downgrade will make your life a lot harder.

-Kevin

 

[rchiu]

Originally posted by: puternoobie
:shocked:

Whoa! Stop! Cease and desist! I didn't mean to start a flame war!

VLarry, my apologies for reading you wrong. It would help if you would reply in simpler terms. You too, Athena.

Meghan54, I used to use Macs. Wouldn't have anything else. But Apple priced them right out of the market for home users on social security. When my son offered me a free PC, I decided to join the rest of the world.

No, Tastes Like Chicken, Vista didn't really "disappear" my files. I found them shortly after that first post. But they were in entirely the wrong place. You're probably right about the Resource Fork comment. It was fairly easy to move files from one computer to another through several Macs and several more PCs. Whenever I tried to delete something, it was invariably the wrong thing so I didn't delete anything I didn't know for sure about.


Rebate Monger, I'm a huge fan of backups. Also of operator-error.

rchiu, tell me where to find information on Dell's downgrading service, please. And thanks for the support.

Uneducated whining? Not hardly. I used Macs from 1988 to 2004 or so, started with XP about the same time and found I liked it just fine. Almost joined the anti-Mac crowd, considering the improvement in service. Read everything I could get my hands on regarding Microsoft OS's, but I'm limited to only what I NEED to know. Thought I was ready for Vista and was determined it would NOT defeat me. But it's a whole different animal. My family is no stranger to computers. I have a son who runs the computer department for a major state university and another son, certified professional engineer, who's no slouch when it comes to computers. Neither my husband nor I have any college education but we can hold our own in most any discussion. He can repair anything that moves and I made a local name for myself in journalism.

So now, I'm calling an end to this "discussion" since it has devolved into a shouting match. Thanks to all of you for replying.

Try contact HP support center to see if they can help you.

HP Vista to XP downgrade FAQ

 

[nyker96]

if your need for features isn't too great, I suggest taking a look at ubuntu 9.04 or the upcoming 9.10. I had an similar with with my parent's rig, can't handle vista at all yet xp seems too archaic. ubuntu has a modern GUI that rivals win 7 and comes loaded with softwares that can handle most of tasks. my parent's loved it over xp.