braddislikesvista Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 Hey guys i was just wondering if i installed windows xp on to my new quad core vista comp, would i be able to use my system restore to bring back vista because as you know when you buy i comp with vista you dont get a vista cd cus they are too cheap lol... just wondering before i install it and am dissapointed and want vista back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kp1erce Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 Hi, as long as you don't delete the software partition on the hardrive, you should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Circuit Posted December 28, 2007 Share Posted December 28, 2007 i would recomend getting something like Ghost to back it up before you risk blowing your whole drive. sometimes mistakes happen when you are formatting {censored}.... i learned that one the hard way. btw, good luck getting drivers for xp. i worked on quite a few new compys that have no compatable xp drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastGirl Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 recommend drive image to external drive then you can image back if you need to. be careful. vista laptop may be difficult to get xp drivers for devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metrogirl Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I'd recommend the same as the others ... with one extra suggestion: If you can spare the money, just pull the vista HDD out of the system and put a new drive in for your XP installation. Then if everything goes horribly pear-shaped you can just swap disks again. Hard drives are cheap enough these days and you could get hold of a smallish drive to test everything before you commit fully. Otherwise, take an image using Ghost or Acronis (for e.g.) then research your hardware, find out who makes the chipset, lan, audio etc. The chances are if you have a well-known motherboard you can get all the XP drivers you need from the MB site. But even if you can't find them on the MB site you can probably find them through Google. Download all the drivers and put them on external media (usb drive, CD etc.) before you start building your XP system so you have them all to hand. You don't want to discover you have no LAN driver and can't connect to the internet to download it because you have no LAN driver One thing to watch is how your disk is connected. You may need to obtain the AHCI or RAID drivers to make a floppy you can install at "F6" time when you put XP on your system, or the HDDs may not be seen. Again, the motherboard site should have what you need. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtotho Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Follow these simple Steps to have the best set up -Resize your vista Partiton to about 30GB by going to start-Right click on my computer- Go to disk manager- then Resize -In the same screen, create a partition for xp that is about 25gb. -Create a third partition with the remaining Space and label it Data. (save all extra files to this from now on, music, movies, installers, etc.) -Put in the XP Disk and install on the new partition you made for it. -After Install is done.. open up Command prompt (Windows button + R or start run then type CMD) -In Command Prompt type "Diskpart" without quotes -Then Type 'Select disk 0' -Then type 'list partitions' -A list will show all your partitions... find the one called Vista (it should be the first one and 30gb). -Once you know which number partition vista is, type 'select partition x' (x being vista number) -Once selected, simply type 'active' and it will say selected partition was set active. -Next , load up your vista disk and go to repair installation. - it will say startup is repaired, and restarting. -Upon restart you should have 2 options, Windows vista (repaired) and 'an older version of windows' -you should now be able to boot between them when you want. -If you would like to change the names of the 2 items, for example, to Windows XP from 'an older version of windows' then in vista, download a program called 'EasyBCD' and you can edit the names from there. This should work, and it will most definately not corrupt any of your files of your operating systems.. if something goes wrong or you need more detailed help, PM me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ongeloof Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Acronis True Image is great software for backing up. i personally use it, but Ghost is also great. don't all PC's that you buy from a shop allow you to make your own backup DVD? my Laptop did... when ever i {censored} that up, pop that disc in and in 30 minutes, all done:P Think Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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