downgrade from win7 to xp

[joker1803]

i am trying to go from window 7 to xp but when i try to load the xp disk it says its not compatable because there is a later version of windows already on my comp. does anyone know how i can get rid of 7 and put xp on? i found a place on the internet that says i can do it if i have the windows.old folder but unfortunantly the guy that did my computer deleted that folder because it was still taking up the majority of my memory.

[gashnau]

You can use hirens bootcd to erase the hard drive by reformatting it, but before you do please consider that the drivers for your machine were designed for windows 7. U can also check regular tech forum pages through google.com

[Goatboy]

unfortunantly the guy that did my computer deleted that folder because it was still taking up the majority of my memory.

storage*

Anyways, you need to do a complete reinstall. Put the XP CD into the CD drive, and boot from that. You may need to change some BIOS settings to allow booting from a CD, depending on what's been done. After that, you just follow the instructions on the screen. It'll probably reboot a few times during the installation.

Remember that you will lose all data, so you will need to back up any important files first.

[msbachman]

Why would you want to downgrade?

[Goatboy]

Personally, I don't need all the bells and whistles that 7 has. I think WinXP is the best OS that Microsoft has released, and it'll be a long time before something better comes from them.

[insomaniacal]

I have to agree with Goatboy. Windows 7 is for the most part, a shinier version of XP, which fixed most of the screw ups of Vista.

[fashizzlepop]

7 isn't bad if your machine can handle it. My 3yo HP laptop can run it fairly well with 1gb. It runs XP much better and Arch even better than that of course.

[joker1803]

well 7 is good but as people have already pointed out its just bells and whistles added onto xp. i have a copy of xp black and xp is the most stable of the operating systems that they have put out in my opinion thus far. and the black version has pretty bells and whistles as well. .
i recently found out that rather than wipeing the hard drive and reinstalling i could create a new partician and open the xp disk on that drive and thus dual boot. im having a problem figuring out how i can open the xp disk on the alternate driver. i have even restarted the comp and tried opening it in the boot promt (F12 at the beggining of start up) but it always gives me a message saying device is not connected check connection and then proceeds to boot the comp as usual. anybody got any ideas?

[mShred]

well 7 is good but as people have already pointed out its just bells and whistles added onto xp. i have a copy of xp black and xp is the most stable of the operating systems that they have put out in my opinion thus far. and the black version has pretty bells and whistles as well. .
i recently found out that rather than wipeing the hard drive and reinstalling i could create a new partician and open the xp disk on that drive and thus dual boot. im having a problem figuring out how i can open the xp disk on the alternate driver. i have even restarted the comp and tried opening it in the boot promt (F12 at the beggining of start up) but it always gives me a message saying device is not connected check connection and then proceeds to boot the comp as usual. anybody got any ideas?

Are you trying to dual boot two different versions of XP? I don't quite understand.

[fashizzlepop]

He wants XP and 7 which seems kind of redundant... You will eventually need Grub to do the switching for you.