E6510 Help With Downgrade from 7-32 bit to XP Pro 32-bit

The safest way to do this is to install XP on another hard drive (either buy a drive/caddy and swap when needed, or use a second, media bay hard drive).

Have you tried running your software in XP SP3 compatibility mode under Windows 7?

Also I think there was an update to this pushed by Microsoft updates recently. So make sure your Windows 7 has all the latest important updates.

Whatever disk you install to you would be best off slipstreaming your SP2 XP source CD with SP3. And install from the SP3 source. Might be that XP wants additional drivers to actually install. You will need to have the extracted drivers available on a CD to insert when prompted. I don't know off hand which drivers these might be. Maybe a disk driver.

Using XP compatibility mode AND running as an Administrator, for BOTH the installation program and the program itself works for many older programs. Running just in compatibility mode is not nearly as successful.

ENN63,

Thanks for the reply.  The hard drive installed is the Seagate 500 GB, which is big enough for a dual-boot.  That said, it is not terribly expensive and I wouldn't mind having a drive setup for Windows 7 and another for XP.  The real key however comes back to the question I'm asking, and that is does anyone have a step-by-step guide to installing the OS and the drivers, whether that's on the existing hard drive or an alternate hard drive. 

Thanks again for the idea.

Have you tried running your software in XP SP3 compatibility mode under Windows 7? Also I think there was an update to this pushed by Microsoft updates recently. So make sure your Windows 7 has all the latest important updates. Whatever disk you install to you would be best off slipstreaming your SP2 XP source CD with SP3. And install from the SP3 source. Might be that XP wants additional drivers to actually install. You will need to have the extracted drivers available on a CD to insert when prompted. I don't know off hand which drivers these might be. Maybe a disk driver.

Enceladus,

Thanks for responding.  Yes, I did try compatibility mode, and with mixed results.  I believe I'm current with all updates but I'll double check.

The term "slipstreame" or "slipstreaming" has been mentioned in some of the threads I referred to in the original post.  I don't actually know what this means, but it sounds like a form of combining files from multiple discs to form one, in a way that they are integrated and install together.  I have a full version of Power ISO that I just got for the last project, which is capable of manipulating files on an ISO image and then creating a new ISO disc.  If you can refer me to any information that would help me to understand and perform a slipstream disc like you suggest I would appreciate it.  I know I can download the ISO for the SP3 update from Microsoft.

I can do an ISO disc of the extracted drivers to CD or DVD, but I don't know how to organize them for installation automatically, and looking at what I've downloaded some of them are noted to be pre OS installation, but again, no idea in what order or exactly how one would do that unless just booting from a disc with them on it would work.  Sorry to be stupid about these things.

Using XP compatibility mode AND running as an Administrator, for BOTH the installation program and the program itself works for many older programs. Running just in compatibility mode is not nearly as successful.

Kirk,

Thanks for the tip.  Now, here's my ignorance.  I'm the only user setup on this PC.  I've set a user name and password, which was created on initial startup.  In the past, in XP, this would have defaulted my account to administrator status.  I'll have to check and see if this is the case in Windows 7.  This is my first experience with this OS.

By your reference to "BOTH the installation program and the program itself" I presume you mean that the software is installed by a user with Administrator status, and then run by a user with the same status.  Correct me if I'm wrong please, and thanks again.

Have you tried running your software in XP SP3 compatibility mode under Windows 7? Also I think there was an update to this pushed by Microsoft updates recently. So make sure your Windows 7 has all the latest important updates. Whatever disk you install to you would be best off slipstreaming your SP2 XP source CD with SP3. And install from the SP3 source. Might be that XP wants additional drivers to actually install. You will need to have the extracted drivers available on a CD to insert when prompted. I don't know off hand which drivers these might be. Maybe a disk driver.

Enceladus,

Okay, I found nlite program recommended for slipstreaming SP3 into XP installation disc.  Now I see also that I could configure the driver installation as well, and some of the things thrown around on the IT threads I've read make a little more sense.  Now, if only I could find someone that has successfully slipstreamed the drivers and anything else necessary, in the correct sequence, I could probably create an installation that would succeed.  If you have any other suggestions or insights regarding slipstreaming I'd appreciate them.  Thanks again!

He means right click on your program icon > "run as administrator".  You can only do this if your account has administrative privilige. Say yes to the subsequent user account control prompt.

You can make this permanent by checking the box in "Privilege level" section of the Compatibility tab of properties for you application. Right click on the icon and select properties to see the tab. The compatibility tab is also where you set compatability mode for XP versions and Vista versions etc.

To slipstream download the network install version of SP3 from Microsoft and putit in a folder you can easily navigate to. EG C:\WINXPSP3

Create a new folder on your local hrad drive and copy the entire conts of the XP-SP2 CD to the new folder. Don't use spaces in the names of the above folders. EG C:\SP3FORXP .Note the volume label of your existing CD. Will be something like WXPFXY_EN.

Run a command prompt by right clicking on the icon and then select run as administrator. Say yes to the UAC prompt.

then  cd C:\SP3FORXP

then nameofservicepackexefile /integrate:c:\WINXPSP3

If all goes well it will integrate sp3 into the copy in c:\WINXPSP3. You to use a burner that can create a bootable CD to write the contents of WINXPSP3 to your CD-R disc. How to do this varies with the program. Note that the folder structure on the new CD starts with the contents of WINXPSP3 so don't just select the folder in your burner, naviagte into the folder and select all of the contents. Use the volume label you noted above as the volume name in your burner.

All well hand you now have a copy of your existing CD updated to SP3. All this stuff is covered on Microsoft's websites and Microsoft Technet. If the CD boots and starts setup you have succeeded.

It is also possible to integrate drivers into your install source, and to integrate post SP3 updates. That is kind of a bit beyond the scope of this forum.

To to intsall XP on you system the likely issue will be a failure due to lack of the disk drivers. Boot your Windows XP CD and as I recall, you get a prompt to press F6 to load additional drivers. So you need to point it to the source of the drivers. Therein might lie the issue as I can't remeber if you can simply substitue your driver CD or will it allow you to navigate to say a USB drive. Which drivers exactly I am not sure either, but they will need to have been extracted first from the executable. Likely to be the disk drivers, don't worry about all the others until post install.

When you get XP installed you will find several unrecognised devices such as your wireless network, ethernet and the video will be VGA only.

At this point you start to install all the Dell XP drivers. Start with the Intel Chipset drivers and reboot, Then do the video drivers and reboot. Then do all of the others and reboot if requested.

Then run Microsoft updates and download everything listed as important. And again and again until there are no more. BTW install .net framework 3.5 from MS updates and skip any 1.x and 2..x. Also XP has no video Codec for playing DVDs as does 7 Professional. Nor is there all the functionality to write CDs and DVDs. You will need third party software for this.

The whole business inluding installing any apps such as Offce or whatever will take you some time. Maybe all day, maybe longer by the time you locate and install all the updates. That is why IT departments create standard install images for systems.

OK. Just saw your reference to nLite. That will do the job very well if you have no issues understanding all the options. You can also try the options to integrate the disk drivers into the XP source.

OK. Just saw your reference to nLite. That will do the job very well if you have no issues understanding all the options. You can also try the options to integrate the disk drivers into the XP source.

enceladus,

on the run this am but saw your detailed response and am grateful.  obviously green with win seven.  good to know nlite is workable. much info in their forum on disc drivers. will respond in more detail tonight.  have a great day.

I've been unable to put attention on this project for the last week or so, until this weekend.  It appears I've found one detailed document which outlines the necessary steps for "Re-Imaging" a number of Dell Desk and Laptop computer models.  It does specifically mention my new machine, the E6510 Laptop.

I have not fully studied this document, but in cursory review it is very detailed, 32 pages of such, and I'm confident that it will provide the general overview of driver and OS installation steps, in the necessary order.

I will further study the IT threads mentioned in the original post, one of which appears to have resolved some long standing hardware functionality issues that have resulted from field installations of  XP Pro on the E6510.  Next I will be attempting to integrate that information with Drivers obtained form Dell' Driver Download for E6510 with XP 32-Bit OS, in to a driver DVD, and a slip-streamed XP Pro SP3 disc.

Here is a link to the Dell Document, titled :E-Family Re-Image "How-To" Guide.  Rev 2.0, A00, April 30th 2010:  http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/late6410/en/rig/reimageA00.pdf 

My next step will be to outline the installation plan, and then build the slipstream OS disk, and driver DVD.  Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

I've built an XP base image for the E6510 that was deployed to approximately 45 terminals.  The only driver that I slipstreamed was the AHCI driver.  The AHCI driver would not be necessary if you wanted legacy IDE.  You'd just have to flip a BIOS setting in hard drive configuration prior to the install.  I used nLite as it is point and click.  I used the XP drivers downloaded from Dell.  It would be a good practice to follow their system driver install order that is a link on the left hand nav of the downloads page.  Make sure you have the latest BIOS from Dell on this model as I've had troubles with XP and resuming from standby without A06 or later BIOS. 

These were not dual-boot systems, but in my experience from building a few XP/7 systems is you always install XP first.  Windows 7 will see the other OS and put the BCDedit in place of the Boot.ini for XP so you can choose which operating system.  Once installed, it is easy to change the default OS it boots to and the time it waits for the OS choice.  It's in system properties or you can manually edit by passing commands to bcdedit. 

This thread has been dormant for a little while.  If you run into troubles, please post back. 

Voycovrezun,

Thank you for the detailed response. 

I apologize for having neglected to report back to this thread that I have successfully installed Windows XP Pro in a dual boot configuration on my laptop. My intention was to outline the steps I followed, along with links to the various web pages and sites that provided insight and assistance.  I was able to preserve the OEM Win 7 installation, and partitioning the drive, installed XP Pro to full functionality with all the E6510 hardware and with no conflicts. 

Unfortunately the process was pretty involved and I've not made time to document it sufficiently to post here.  For now I will point to the best tutorial, which I followed, with perfect success here:  http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

I am also grateful to the developers of EasyBCD for their excellent program to resolve boot conflicts and configure the boot screen and to nLite for their fantastic software, which I used to slipstream SP3 and the AHCI driver as you mentioned.  I used a CD burned with the XP drivers from Dell, loaded into folders named to place them in the driver protocol as laid out in a general rebuild document that included the E series laptops, with one exception; various versions of Microsoft.NET Framework are required for some of the drivers, which requires internet access to complete, so I had to install the network driver ahead of the protocol, with no problem.

As far as I'm concerned, this is now the perfect machine for my purposes, truly the best of both worlds!  I use Win 7 for internet browsing, Microsoft Office Suite and extensive photo editing software, and with the I7 core processor its blazing fast.  Alternately, with a small, inexpensive plug-in legacy dock and a fully functioning XP boot I can connect to and program automotive EFI racing ECU's (very expensive engines with no margin for error by either PC or operator) and I can run various other legacy software with zero issues. 

For me, the process involved a lot of research, and took a fair bit of time, but in the end it was well worth it!  Thanks everyone for their feedback and suggestions!