Can someone/ anyone please help me delete Microsoft Vista off my system and revert back to XP!?

Question

I have looked on the internet for countless hours, and toiled, and toiled again searching for ways to basically "downgrade" (supposedly) my system to XP, but NOTHING and none of these instructions are working! I have an Alienware, Sentia m3450 notebook. I have tried booting from the XP disk, which I bought, in store, and own a product key to, but it basically gets to a point where it tells me "YOU CAN'T DO THIS." It is so frustrating, and I am about to throw the computer into the street. Someone with some know-how, please help me!!! I am begging you! I have had enough of VISTA and want to go back to my old familiar, XP! There HAS to be a way around this mechanism they have built into my vista home edition, to delete the whole damn thing, and start my machine up again, where it will RECOGNIZE and INSTALL my copy of XP! Who out there in the world-wide-web is smart enough to help me out??! come guys/girls, I need your know how! HELP! please, as many different strategies/answers R welcome!

Answer 1

First boot from the Cd, It's not Vista stopping you it is the XP install program on the XP cd, what you need to do when you boot from the XP cd is to format the drive, then this will let XP check the drive, and decide that you can install XP



What some say about needing to "delete the partition" thats absurd, you would just need to create it right after you delete it, so you could format it...DUH





Backup any thing you need to keep, formatting will erase it all



(quick format is fine unless you have bad sectors or are going to change the type, if you have NTFS just keep it)

Answer 2

if you have a usb keydrive just do this tutorial and boot into linux using a usb keydrive. You can using the linux installation tool to erase your windows install and format it and then just exit out of the linux install tool and then your good to go. Just restart with your xp disk in there and install like its a fresh hard drive. I would really have to tell you though that I would just stick with vista. Xp will make your computer handicaped as far as desktop performance and loading times and boot times go. Vista is made for multicore processors and vista 64 will let you have ram more than 3.2 gigs and let you use it. Some games run al little slower but also they run alot smoother. Ut3, crysis and etqw are good examples of this. Also windows xp just crashes and then restarts its self when vista will acctually try to find a solution and try to correct its self. Vista even restarts the driver to your graphics card if there is a problem and will keep going when xp will fail. Dont believe all the bad rap on it most the time its people that never used it or people that are to cheap to upgrade thier hardware or buy vista all together. Corperations hate it because the just got to xp from windows 2000 and they dont have the hard to run it. If you have a alienware computer you have the hardware to run it and all you are doing limiting your computer. if you have any questions just add me on here and I'll send you an email

Answer 3

You can't downgrade, Vista is completely different to XP, and - sorry - there's no suicide option in it. And because the Ntfs file system is different you can't just install XP over it.

The only way: download the iso (it's just an image file not a program) for http://dban.sourceforge.net/ and burn it to a cd-r - use the Image option not Data. Now you need to boot your pc from it.

1. Make sure that in the boot order the cd is the first: at start press Delete or F1 to enter BIOS setup - the correct one is written on the manufacturer screen at startup.

2. Search the boot order and put the cd first - instruction how to do this are on the screen.

3. Before Save and Exit put the cd you burned in. Now hit Enter - the pc will save your modifications and reboot.Insert the DBAN disk. If you have done the things correctly the pc will boot from the disk.

Now all you have to do is to follow the instructions on the screen and wipe the whole hard disk. When it's done click Exit and, while the pc is rebooting, insert the XP install disk.

Now you can do a truly clean install.

Don't forget to have already at hand a disk with the XP drivers - search for them.

Answer 4

Boot from the windows xp cd,

Load the raid or sata drivers if you need them,

Follow the instructions on screen to install xp,

When it asks where you want to install *delete the vista partition* and create a fresh partition to install xp to.

I don't think Vista allows a secondary operating system to install to the same partition and I'm guessing this is where you're having the problem. Just make sure you back up everything you don't want to lose as this will wipe the partition where vista is installed and everything else that is on it.

Answer 5

First make a back up copy of all the files important to you and then get ready to loose all the rest. load your XP on the cd-rom. turn your computer off. restart, but just before it start to load windows vista, press and hold F12 a dialog should appear and follow instructions. boot from the cd drive which is your windows Xp. install complete version of Xp that you want, it will only take a little patience. enjoy.

Answer 6

Get a program called KillDisk. Burn to CDROM, boot to the CD and follow instructions. It will erase your whole hard drive like new.

Try installing XP after that.

Another thing is you might call Alienware. Many manufacturers have been providing downgrade disks so they don't have to listen to the Vista complaints!

Answer 7

It is actually easy if you are ready to format your whole hard drive, boot into the XP installation disk and choose the whole hard disk to make a fresh install, nothing should go wrong. BUT YOU CAN'T DOWNGRADE. YOU HAVE TO MAKE A FRESH INSTALLATION AND FORMAT YOUR WHOLE HARD DISK WHICH WILL ERASE ALL YOUR EXISTING DATA.

Answer 8

put the windows xp disk in to your cd drive



reboot your computer



when it says "boot from cd" push a key



then it gets tricky



it'll say "press a button if you want to isntall 3rd party raid drivers" you may need to do this



if you do then you need to put in a cd with the drivers in, or a floppy disk, or to slipstream the drivers into the xp disk



but that's IF you need drivers



if you don't follow the prompts



if you're having errors then you probably do need 3rd party drivers.



i actually like vista, i'v been using ultimate x64 for about a month now and i'v had no troubles with it

Answer 9

Have you ever tried the vmware software? If you try vmware you can have both x86 and x64 in one computer,Or even upgrade your windows vista to XP! Try to buy it now!

http://www.vmware.com/products/desktop_virtualization.html

If you don't want to do this also try to buy an external HDD and backup your HDD then repartition your disk. It also seems working!

http://shopping.yahoo.com/s:Hard%20Drives:1465-Capacity=181.600_300.000:1017-Type%20of%20Drive=External:1013-Interface=Hi-Speed%20USB:1468-Rotational%20Speed=7200.000_7200.000:keyword=External%20hard%20drive;_ylt=AjeEAPtWtpcHvC3G7p8mQ_GCjnUC;_ylu=X3oDMTBmNzVhaTljBF9zAwRzZWMDd2VzdG5hdg--?y=ggggg