Posted on 04/02/2012 9:29:02 PM PDT by dalereed
What do I have to do to erase Windows 7 and install a newly purchased OEM copy of Windows XP Professional?
Okay... A serious word of caution before you proceed:
!!!BACK UP EVERYTHING!!! Depending upon how you go forward, this process can result in everything being wiped off the hdd and totally unrecoverable!!!
PRIORITY ONE:
If you have a name brand computer, go to the manufacturer’s site, find your particular machine by it’s model number, go to it’s download page and SEE IF IT HAS XP DRIVERS AVAILABLE. If there are no XP drivers available for ALL/ANY of your internal hardware, your present course may well turn into a nightmare.
If you have a whitebox (rolled yer own), make certain the motherboard and any cards in the box have XP drivers (for the same reason).
PRIORITY TWO:
Determine if your machine has a RESTORE PARTITION onboard the hard drive - If it does, I would highly suggest using a different hdd or getting an image of the restore partition so that it can be replaced later (either for if you change your mind, or for eventual resale purposes).
Beyond those two factors, the object of the exercise will be to reformat the hard drive (whether the existing or different) in order to receive the new operating system - The easiest way to do this is with a partitioning utility, or a zero-write utility (which you can generally obtain from your hdd manufacturer). To be safe, be certain to replace the Master Boot Record while you are at it.
Once the hdd is without any partitions, simply make sure your CMOS boot sequence is set to boot to cd/dvd as first boot, throw in the XP cd and boot to it. From there it is usually just a matter of following XP’s reasonably easy instructions...
One can also consider a dual boot scenario, where XP and Win7 exist on the same machine, where one can boot into either one... If this is of interest, write back.
One can also consider running XP inside of a virtual machine inside of Win7 or Linux... again, this is another whole can of fish, so write back for specifics...
Even better, create a new installation with Service Pack 3 slipstreamed in.
Here's a link to a free program that automates the process of making customized Windows XP installation disks.
http://www.nliteos.com/index.html
I used XP from the time of its inception, until I my fingers were finally pried away from my dying dinosaur computers last year.
I went out and bought a new E-machines computer with Windows 7 on it, and so far it’s been as reliable and user friendly as my old XP system ever was.
Just curious, but why would you want to go back to XP now?
You know, the boss asked folks to stop doing that on MS related threads some time back. Keep pushing it, and he’s going to nuke all computer related threads from HIS site.
Downgrades are difficult, and I’ve done ‘em on all kinds of systems. You can bitch all you want, but progress is what we’re all about since the invention of the wheel (you wanna go back to the pre-wheel times of Eden?) I hope you have found your answer. Best of luck.
The Mac Pros do make the best anchors when the dimm or PCI-E slots start crapping out.
Mac pros are crap in reality.
I'm pretty much forced to use Windows 7, because I have 64-bit applications. Sure there was a 64-bit version of XP, but it's pretty hard to get support for it anymore especially with software updates. My biggest complaint is the number of devices for which there are no 64-bit Windows 7 drivers. I recently had to buy a refurbished 32-bit dual core Dell Windows XP Workstation on EBay to run my large format scanner. The computer built in 2003 bundled with the scanner had Windows 2000 and was way underpowered with just an 850 Mhz Pentium III and 256 MB RAM to be able to process images after scanning. I bought a workstation class machine with 3GB ECC RAM, because I wanted to make sure its components would last at least 10 years.
It's pretty ridiculous that a $20K scanner would have to be abandoned due to lack of Windows 7 drivers. I think it's also ridiculous that Microsoft is dropping XP Professional support on April 8, 2014. I can understand them dropping support for the lame Home version, but there are lots of expensive devices used by businesses that will never have drivers for newer versions. I'm sure after the end of support, future servers won't support Windows XP clients, so it will be more difficult to share files created by devices that must be connected to machines running XP.
This is a strange choice, simply for a printer issue.
Please note that Windows 7 is basically a modified Windows XP kernel (and also note that MS will never admit that).
As such, if you are running Windows 7, you are in essence running Windows XP.
Again, strange choice.
There is a likely a workaround to your problem somewhere on the internet. Have you searched ?
If it has more than 4GB of system memory stick with windows 7, you can make windows 7 look like XP and win 7 can use more than 4GB memory. Xp can only use 3-4GB memory.
You could have installed virtual box with USB support and made a virtual xp machine and use the usb through that.....
I tried that; it doesn't work for two reasons. First, the dongle for the software lock won't work in the virtual XP machine. Second, the virtual XP machine lacks the ability to use devices attached to SCSI adapters or Firewire ports. The scanner is a Firewire 400 device, so the virtual machine is useless. Still I can use the virtual XP machine to use less demanding hardware that only need USB access.
My new company laptop has an i7-2600 with 8 GB RAM and 500 GB of disk. The OS is Win 7 64-bit Enterprise Edition. The company IT people could not get it configured with dual boot due to whole disk encryption (Symantec) demanded by company security policy. The free VMware player solved the problem by giving the VM capability. You can load up a VM using disk media (CDROM/DVD) or simply an ISO download image file. It's dirt simple. If you don't like it, you can remove it. You might also find Virtual Box to your liking. Similar concept, but supplied as open source and supported by Oracle.
I have 3 VMs built on my laptop. Fedora 16 32-bit, Fedora 16 64-bit and Debian 6 64-bit. All work fine. Just like having a physical host.
I’m using xp on a computer that was built from scratch with all new parts 3 years ago. I figure I’ll upgrade my 3 year old homebuilt computer to windows 9 when it comes out, or at least attempt it. If it won’t go, then I’ll switch to linux. Until then, I’m sticking with xp...and skipping vista, 7, and 8.
I don’t believe it. They aren’t going to drop support in 2014. They’ll extend it again at least once before xp doomsday. I’m guessing 2016 will end up being the absolute last and final no exceptions end of the line for xp.
XP can only utilize 3 gigs RAM. I have 4 gigs in my box. I’m running XP and have it in classic mode with all the “old fashioned” options turned on so that it looks just like windows 95.
So how come the manufacturer of your scanner wouldn't write the drivers for Win7?
Before you go through all this, have you checked with Okidata to see if they have updated drivers for your laser printer? It may well be that the drivers that came with your printer are outdated for Windows 7, but newer drivers are available.
Most printer manufacturers make drivers available on their website for download. Simply download the latest drivers, uninstall the printer, then reinstall using the file you downloaded. When uninstalling a printer, it’s always good to look at the manufacturer’s website to see if they have a recommended routine. You want to be sure you get all the files, registry associations, etc. And always reboot before installing the latest drivers.
None of that is true.
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