How to downgrade window 7 to windows xp home edition.

[skwiji]

Hi! i want to downgrade my W7 to WindowsXP home edition. but my computer cannot detect my hard disk drive and it says that i need some kind of driver in order to continue formatting my computer.

 

[arges86]

um....
first of all, you can't 'downgrade' an OS ontop of the other one.
The only thing you can do, is create a new partition (this can be done w/ the windows installation disk) to put the OS on, or simply reformat the existing hard drive (assuming you have all your data backed up).

when the computer turns on, the BIOS checks all the hardware to see whats there. this is called the POST. Does this list show your hard drive?
Make sure its plugged all the way in, and has the necessary power connections hooked up

 

[Ijack]

I guess that you've got a SATA hard disk. You'll either need to load drivers for it from a floppy or else use a SP3 Windows XP disk.

It can be done, but I have to wonder why anyone would bother to load an OS that has just about reached the end of its support lifetime instead of using a more modern version.

 

[Herr_Koos]

I guess that you've got a SATA hard disk. You'll either need to load drivers for it from a floppy or else use a SP3 Windows XP disk.

It can be done, but I have to wonder why anyone would bother to load an OS that has just about reached the end of its support lifetime instead of using a more modern version.

I'm guessing the OP was running the 7 RC as his primary OS and it has now expired, but he doesn't plan to buy Windows 7 and wants to revert back to XP.

 

[Bearach]

Hi! i want to downgrade my W7 to WindowsXP home edition. but my computer cannot detect my hard disk drive and it says that i need some kind of driver in order to continue formatting my computer.

Sounds to me like you've probably got your SATA hard drive set to AHCI mode in the bios. Windows XP doesn't have the drivers for AHCI built in (as far as I know) and you'll need to make a driver disk for your SATA controller.

You could either change "RAID mode" to IDE (Option could be named differently in BIOS) or create a disk. Extract the driver, whether it be nVIDIA, ATi or Intel and it will have the driver files for the controller, make sure you put all the files regarding the controller onto a disk and during the setup process press F6 when asked once installed your hard drive should be viewable to the OS.

Would need to know the SATA controller, or motherboard chipset to know the exact process.