I would like to reistall xp over win 7

trudolph58

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Mar 3, 2010
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Hello,
how do i reinstall xp over win 7. iwant to do this because the video driver doesnt work in win 7 and there is no new driver
 

saran008

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Insert Xp bootable cd in CD/dvd drive, boot from cd, Format C:/ drive where windows 7 is installed. Install the Xp in that partition.

OR

Give the details about what drivers you need for Windows 7, so that we may help you.
 

crudstud

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Mar 2, 2010
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this is my experience: if you are trying to install windows xp, at least the early version i have, you cannot install it to an SATA drive unless your computer is equiped with a floppy drive. windows xp does not recognize SATA drives without certain Raid drivers. during the beginning installation of xp, it will say something like, "if you want to install Raid drivers, click F6 now." then a little later it will ask you to put the FLOPPY disk into the tray and click Enter. then, and only then, will window "SEE" your SATA hard drive (s) and continue the installation. according to people i've listened to, using an external floppy drive doesn't work because windows at that stage doesn't recognize its existence. If you have a floppy drive, contact me and i'll see that you get the drivers (somehow) it's a damn shame computer manufacturers rarely put floppy drives on their new computers.
 



Please provide systems specifications. Unless you PC is VERY old, there should be a Win7 driver available. If you are stuck with a 10 year old machine, XP is a better choice.
 

If I understand what you wrote, that's not true. I have four SATA systems running XP and all you need to do is pop a bootable CD into the optical drive. The only time you need a floppy with RAID drivers is if you are going to install RAID.


Not really. I finally stopped building floppy drives into my computers. It now takes about 6 or 7 floppies to boot an XP system. I have an external USB floppy drive that among 3 desktop and 2 laptop systems, gets used about 2 - 3 times a year.
 
What video card, as a matter of interest? Someone might know of a driver or a solution to your problem.

Is it a laptop or a desktop? If a desktop a cheap video card might be the answer (however cheap it's going to be better than one so old that it's not supported by Windows 7). I'm not trying to dissuade you from the, what I see as, retrograde step of going back to XP just trying to explore the options.
 

crudstud

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well jsc, all i can tell you is that on my system, i absolutely could not install xp without putting in the raid drivers. now as i said, i had an early version of XP, which did not have service pack One. windows said it couldn't install because it couldn't "see" any hard drives to put it on. i tried dozens of times with no success. come to think of it, why would microsoft invent Virtual PC for XP mode if people could just add xp to a partition or to a second SATA drive and boot to that, instead of dealing with the XP mode, which so far for me has been almost worthless. so JSC, what does your copy of XP have on it, as far as service packs??