Getting rid of Vista

[Damien Evans]

I want to get rid of Windows Vista from my computer and go back to XP, but when I put in the XP cd the "Install Windows XP" button is greyed out and cannot be pressed.

Can someone please help?

 

[integral]

Are you putting the CD in when windows is running? Try booting to the CD directly.

Leave the CD in the tray, and when the computer is booting hit ESC or maybe F8, and a boot menu should come up allowing you to choose what device to boot to. Choose the CD, then follow the onscreen instructions.

 

[integral]

Also, if you can get your hands on a copy of the windows 7 beta, I would say that it's a better choice than Vista or XP the tricky thing is that it expires after a year; unless you disable the expiration code ("time-bomb").

 

[ElMondoHummus]

Are you putting the CD in when windows is running? Try booting to the CD directly.

Leave the CD in the tray, and when the computer is booting hit ESC or maybe F8, and a boot menu should come up allowing you to choose what device to boot to. Choose the CD, then follow the onscreen instructions.

Integral beat me to it, but yes: Presuming you don't have an upgrade disc, but rather have the full "OEM" copy (i.e. one that can install Windows from scratch), this is the way to do it. It's called a "clean install", and there are directions out on the web that you can use.

Keep in mind that since you're downgrading, you're most likely going to want to erase your hard drive first (that's where the "clean" in "clean install" comes from). So you'll want to back up the stuff you want to keep. You can do this manually, or if you have room for a fair amount of storage somewhere (blank DVD, external hard drive, whatever), you can use Vista's "Easy Transfer" wizard.

And you'll also want to make sure you have the proper "drivers" for your system. Otherwise, things like your video card, sound card, network card, etc. won't function, and you'll be in a heck of a worse situation than you are now. If you're lucky, your computer's manufacturer will have given you a disc or several discs that contain those. If you're slightly unlucky, you'll have to hit the web and download the right ones for your computer. If you're seriously unlucky, you won't be able to locate those drivers. In that case, you might want to reconsider getting rid of Vista just for now. So seriously, make sure you've got those drivers first, because otherwise you'll screw yourself and make the process waaaaay harder than it needs to be.

Also, if you can get your hands on a copy of the windows 7 beta, I would say that it's a better choice than Vista or XP the tricky thing is that it expires after a year; unless you disable the expiration code ("time-bomb").

Beta? The Release Candidate is out already. Which reminds me, I need to wipe my own install of the beta and go to the RC... damn, I used to actually have time to geek out with new stuff like this in the past. What's happened to my life??

 

[shadron]

What ElMundo says, except that you may need get into the boot setup to change the boot priority of the CD-Rom drive to higher than the hard drive. Also, you will have the opportunity to reformat the boot partition in the XP build, which will effectively erase the boot partition without having to do it explicitly before starting the build.

As for drivers - ElMondo is correct, but I've found that it's possible to at least have a list of the makes and models of all the peripherals in your system. You can get that from My Computer->Properties->Hardware->Device Manager (for XP; god only knows what for Vista). XP will supply default drivers which will be adequate for the build (for mouse, keyboard, video, CD-ROM and networking), but when the build is done, you'll want specific drivers. The easiest thing to do is to get the Internet up and then download drivers from the manufacturer's websites using your list, with the added benefit that you get the latest versions. Generally, tghe only trouble you'll have doing this is if you have an exceedingly old peripheral and an XP version driver was never built, or if the manufacturer has gone out of business. Install them to replace the default drivers.

 

[PhreePhly]

Before you delete Vista, make sure that the XP drivers are available for your system. I have not experienced it directly, but I have heard some Toshiba and Sony models (desktop and laptops) do not have XP drivers.

Also, if your system boots with a SATA drive, make sure you have the XP SP3 disk or you have the driver available on a floppy drive. XP does not always install to a SATA drive. You may need to press F6 during the install to load the SATA driver.

PhreePhly

 

[Marquis de Carabas]

XP will supply default drivers which will be adequate for the build (for mouse, keyboard, video, CD-ROM and networking)...

This is probably right, but I've downgraded a lot of machines and quite often the default network drivers won't fly. So I would highly recommend you have an XP driver for your network card available before you wipe anything out. Having the network up and running makes getting any other driver you need a piece of cake. If it's down, though, it's likely headache time.

 

[SezMe]

You can get that from My Computer->Properties->Hardware->Device Manager (for XP; god only knows what for Vista)..

My Computer->Properties->Device Manager

ETA: Just out of curiosity, why?

 

[Damien Evans]

Are you putting the CD in when windows is running? Try booting to the CD directly.

Leave the CD in the tray, and when the computer is booting hit ESC or maybe F8, and a boot menu should come up allowing you to choose what device to boot to. Choose the CD, then follow the onscreen instructions.

Tried that, did nothing.

 

[Damien Evans]

My Computer->Properties->Device Manager

ETA: Just out of curiosity, why?

Because my laptop only has 512 meg of memory and runs my applications very slowly on Vista. I used to have XP, but when I had to get it serviced a month or so ago the stupid techs put vista back on it.

 

[Damien Evans]

Integral beat me to it, but yes: Presuming you don't have an upgrade disc, but rather have the full "OEM" copy (i.e. one that can install Windows from scratch), this is the way to do it. It's called a "clean install", and there are directions out on the web that you can use.

Keep in mind that since you're downgrading, you're most likely going to want to erase your hard drive first (that's where the "clean" in "clean install" comes from). So you'll want to back up the stuff you want to keep. You can do this manually, or if you have room for a fair amount of storage somewhere (blank DVD, external hard drive, whatever), you can use Vista's "Easy Transfer" wizard.

And you'll also want to make sure you have the proper "drivers" for your system. Otherwise, things like your video card, sound card, network card, etc. won't function, and you'll be in a heck of a worse situation than you are now. If you're lucky, your computer's manufacturer will have given you a disc or several discs that contain those. If you're slightly unlucky, you'll have to hit the web and download the right ones for your computer. If you're seriously unlucky, you won't be able to locate those drivers. In that case, you might want to reconsider getting rid of Vista just for now. So seriously, make sure you've got those drivers first, because otherwise you'll screw yourself and make the process waaaaay harder than it needs to be.



Beta? The Release Candidate is out already. Which reminds me, I need to wipe my own install of the beta and go to the RC... damn, I used to actually have time to geek out with new stuff like this in the past. What's happened to my life??

Drivers aren't a problem. How do I erase the hard drive?

 

[SezMe]

Because my laptop only has 512 meg of memory and runs my applications very slowly on Vista. I used to have XP, but when I had to get it serviced a month or so ago the stupid techs put vista back on it.

I'm surprised it even runs on 512. How 'bout you do a backup and take it back and tell THEM to put it back the way it was?

 

[Evilgiraffe]

Drivers aren't a problem. How do I erase the hard drive?

Boot and Nuke. Download it, burn to a cd and reboot with it in the cd drive.
It'll wipe pretty much any data on the hard drive by writing random sequences of bits. I think it's darn useful but can be a bit slow, especially if you have a large hard disk.

FAQ's are here

 

[Damien Evans]

I'm surprised it even runs on 512. How 'bout you do a backup and take it back and tell THEM to put it back the way it was?

That's the minimum it will run on. Works fine as a high tech typewriter but try playing any games on it and it's like you spilled maple syrup on the cpu.

As to the second, I'd rather find out how to do it myself. Curiosity I suppose.

 

[jsiv]

Drivers aren't a problem. How do I erase the hard drive?

You will have to find a way to boot from the CD. Once you've done that, the installer will let you erase/create partitions and format them as you want.

There are other tools that will erase your disk too, like Evilgiraffe has suggested, you but you still need to be able to boot the XP CD in order to install XP.

 

[integral]

Beta? The Release Candidate is out already. Which reminds me, I need to wipe my own install of the beta and go to the RC... damn, I used to actually have time to geek out with new stuff like this in the past. What's happened to my life??

Eeks, your right! I guess I haven't been paying much attention to the Windows development front lately.

 

[dasmiller]

Before you delete Vista, make sure that the XP drivers are available for your system. I have not experienced it directly, but I have heard some Toshiba and Sony models (desktop and laptops) do not have XP drivers.

I have a Dell laptop (M1530 or something like that) and there aren't real XP drivers for it. There are long threads in various groups about what drivers are equivalent and can be used, and you can get it to work, but it's not the straightforward process that it should be.

Of course, if the OP had XP running before, he's probably solved the driver problem once already.

 

[dasmiller]

Because my laptop only has 512 meg of memory and runs my applications very slowly on Vista. I used to have XP, but when I had to get it serviced a month or so ago the stupid techs put vista back on it.

If everything's working for you in Vista (and that's a big "if"!), I'd be tempted to simply put in more RAM. It's pretty cheap and you can replace the memory a lot faster than you can reinstall the OS.

FWIW, I've found that 512M isn't enough for me in XP anymore. I tend to have several web pages up, various things open, etc. I had an older laptop (not the M1530 mentioned earlier) running XP with 512M, and I recently bumped it up to 2GB. I think it cost me $30.

 

[dasmiller]

This is probably right, but I've downgraded a lot of machines and quite often the default network drivers won't fly. So I would highly recommend you have an XP driver for your network card available before you wipe anything out. Having the network up and running makes getting any other driver you need a piece of cake. If it's down, though, it's likely headache time.

I've come around to the view that you shouldn't try to do any heavy PC work (hardware changes, OS installs, etc) unless you have a working PC nearby. Far too often, some unexpected problem will come up and internet access is simply invaluable at such times.

That being said, it's not a bad idea to burn a CD with all of the drivers you expect to need before you start the OS install. And the network drivers would be very high on the priority list.