Help removing Vista and installing XP

Question

I wanted my E1705 notebook to have XP preinstalled on it, but I ordered after Dell switched to Vista so I got Vista instead.  I'm going overseas soon where I'll have limited Internet access and won't be able to spend a lot of time looking for patches and the latest Vista drivers, and figuring out the new GUI.  I want the tried-and-true XP I'm familiar with.  No problem; I have an XP installation disk, so I figured I could use that to reformat and install XP.    I booted the computer up from the XP installation disk, but I get a BSOD every time about 5 minutes into the process while the installation is loading files.  I haven't messed with any of the Vista partitions or reformatted the drive, if that matters.   Any ideas what's causing this?   Thanks, Jon

jmwills · Answer

Where did the disc come from?   Does this machine require drivers for the hard drive (SATA or RAID)?

Jon Lazar · Answer

The XP disk and Vista disk are both Dell OEM installation disks.

I don't think this machine requires drivers for the hard drive, either for XP or Vista. I don't see any XP or Vista drivers in Dell's driver download section that looks like they're for a hard drive. Vista still works on the notebook, so if a Vista driver is required, it's installed.

Message Edited by Jon Lazar on 02-02-2007 03:35 PM

jmwills · Answer

I have the same machine, XP MCE05 came with it.  Since I have a TechNet subscription, I already had Vista so when the machine go here, boom boot from the DVD, deleted ALL partitions, and created three new ones.   Finished in 20 minutes or so.  Did you delete all existing partitions?

Tiele · Answer

@Jon: It's caused by the XP install that's checking out your disc status. It's finding an OS it doesn't know how to handle and crashes.   Like suggested, remove partitions or at least format them with another utility disc such as Hiren's.

anrits · Answer

i'm having the exact same problem as Jon is having.   i am trying to remove Vista and install XP   i deleted all 3 partitions with fdisk, and when i load up the xp installation cd, after a minute of so of loading, the blue screen of death pops up     what should i do now even if i deleted all the partitions?

jmwills · Answer

Please don';t hijack the thread.   If the original poster will hit F12 at post you can choose the DVD drive as a one time 'first boot option'.  Your system will then boot fromthe disc where you can recreate the partitions and go back to XP.   Now for the second poster.  It is impossible to help without knowing what mahcine you have and what kind of hard drive configurations.  Possibly a RAID or SATA I'm guessing.,

Jon Lazar · Answer

Problem solved.  I was using a Win XP SP1 installation disk, which apparently does not support PCIe, and my Inspiron has PCIe.  I purchased a new Win XP SP2 installation disk from Dell and everything loaded fine.   Thanks to all for your help.

Windows General

Help removing Vista and installing XP

Was this post helpful?