My first post here, and wonder if anyone can help

Currently I have Windows 7 starter on the notebook I am quite annoyed how much is missing. For example be able to work with the network settings. Luckily it did manage to pick up my network workgroup automatically and it saved itself been thrown in the bin. Still I am unable to set it up how I wish.

This notebook does not have a CD-Rom/DVD drive and I want to remove Windows 7 and install XP.

So far I have not had any success doing this. I have contacted my external HDD and copied the files from the disk to the HDD and all I get is a flashing cursor on the top left hand of a black screen.

The BIOS has these boot options:

AHCI HDD: That the normal HDD
USB HDD: My external HDD is dectected and shows here, so does my mem stick
USB CD
PCI BEV
USB FDD
USB KEY
USB ZIP
USB LS120

Is there anything else I can do to get the system to boot the Windows XP setup? Am I doing the external method wrong? is there more to just simply copying the files from the XP CD to the external HDD or mem stick?

Just copying the files to an external HD will not allow you to install from there sine the drive will not be bootable.

First, are you sure you can find XP drivers for this laptop? If not, there is no sense in continuing as you will be very frustrated.

You will need to clean install XP, formatting the hard drive so I would strongly urge you to do an image backup of the existing Windows 7 setup before doing anything else. Macrium Reflect is a good , free program to do this with. Put the image on the external drive.

One thing you can try is to run \I386\WINNT32.EXE from the external hard drive while booted from Windows 7. I don't know if it will even start, but worth a try. If it does, that starts the XP install, then reboots and continues so you can format the Win 7 partition and finish the XP install.

If not, you can setup XP to install from a bootable USB flash drive

I personally would never go back to XP from Windows 7, it's like going back to Windows 98 SE from XP. I would recommend spending the $$$ and getting Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional (what I run at home) via the Windows 7 anytime upgrade path.

Thanks for the tips. I have not tried and loaded xp from Win 7. I will give that a go.

Yes I have all the xp drivers for the notebook it was on the make's web site also there is a restore option with a part of the hard drive located away from the bootable part.

At this point in the time I have not got the money to update to the full version and this cut down version really sucks.

"I have not tried and loaded xp from Win 7. "

Following Ztrukers post, MS inherently will not allow an "earlier" MS OS to be loaded. Your best option is to load XP from the XP CD, wiping all (prior) OS partitions/installs from the HDD.

Dan, he does not have a CD or DVD drive, that's what this thread is about.

Also, MS does not prevent you from back leveling a Windows OS. They do not allow you to do it dynamically as a reverse of upgrading, but it is certainly doable if you format the installation partition/drive during the install process. I've done it from XP to Win 2000.

The only question is whether you can run the XP install program WINNT32.EXE from a Windows 7 command prompt. If not, creating a bootable USB flash drive to install XP with will work if the laptop supports booting from a USB device, which his first post seems to indicate it does.

One thing to consider is the copy of XP that you are trying to use. You can't use a copy from a manufacturer on any machine other than what the manufacturer makes. For example you can't use a copy from Dell on an HP. Each manufacturer customizes XP for their own system and in some cases builds in checks to make sure that it isn't used in another computer. The exception would be a retail copy and that is because it isn't designed for a specific manufacturer. Anymore, OS downgrades aren't recommended and are becoming less and less feasible. XP is out of date. I second the recommendation to keep what you have. If this is a netbook (which is what I bet it is) there isn't much that they are designed to do in the first place.

Ztruker,

An external (USB) optical drive can be bought/borrowed for OS installation purposes.

The copy of XP I have is an OEM version of the software I used to you on my desktop system. I use Vista on it now (cough, cough not got the money at this point in time to change it). Meaning I am in my right to use this copy of XP on my notebook as its one copy being used.

More and more it seems I am being push towards buy a USB CD-ROM/DVD drive. Or will this actually do the trick?

Sorry, but that is not true. An OEM version of Windows is tied to the hardware and it is not legal to use it on a different computer.

Originally Posted by TPKing

Meaning I am in my right to use this copy of XP on my notebook as its one copy being used.

Sorry but that only applies to retail copies because they cost more. You only have the right to use an oem copy on the computer that it came with (if you don't believe me read the fine print). Besides like I explained that copy is customized for the computer that it come with & will only work on the computer that it came with and might even refuse to install on another computer. If you're really insistent upon installing XP on that computer you'll have to buy a copy in which case you might as well buy a 7 upgrade. As for installing a copy from a external drive you should be able to as long as there is an option to boot from a usb device.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...e/starter.aspx