Converting Vista to XP

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Cooter - 29 Jul 2007 19:29 GMT

A few months ago I bought a Lenovo computer with Vista installed. My
intention was to try Vista and see if I liked it - I don't! I know that the
machine can run XP, but the Lenovo web site has nothing useful except video
and audio drivers.

I plan to reformat the HD, then install XP us usual. The problem is, the HD
is 225 GB and I assume I will need a disk or whatever XP needs for a large
drive. I can't find any such driver, and even if I did, there is no floppy
drive on the machine. Aoneone have any useful suggestions? Thanks in
advance!

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Jim - 29 Jul 2007 20:14 GMT

>A few months ago I bought a Lenovo computer with Vista installed. My
>intention was to try Vista and see if I liked it - I don't! I know that the
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> floppy drive on the machine. Aoneone have any useful suggestions? Thanks
> in advance!

The XP installation disk is a CD. You do not need a floppy to install XP.
225GB is much more than enough for XP. I am typing this message on a laptop
with 60GB, and 40 of them are not used. If you ever need more, then you buy
a USB drive.

As for the installation: It is not necessary to format the drive; the
installation CD has
all the tools that you need to perform a clean installation (which is the
only way to regress
from Vista to XP). The one thing that you must do is to confirm that Lenovo
has full XP
support for the hardware in your computer. If they don't, the task is apt
to result in a very
big mess.

Jim

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Ken Blake, MVP - 29 Jul 2007 20:25 GMT

> A few months ago I bought a Lenovo computer with Vista installed. My
> intention was to try Vista and see if I liked it - I don't! I know that the
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> drive on the machine. Aoneone have any useful suggestions? Thanks in
> advance!

The reason you can't find a driver is that no driver is necessary. As
long as you have at least SP1 of XP, large drives are supported
natively.

Signature

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

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Harry Ohrn - 29 Jul 2007 20:49 GMT

You need XP with Service Pack 1 or 2 (SP1 or SP2) which will support large
drives.

You can likely find the drivers you need here
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/product.do?doctypeind=8&template=%2Fp
roductselection%2Flandingpages%2FonlinePublicationsLandingPage.vm&sitestyle=leno
vo

Signature

Harry Ohrn MS MVP [Shell\User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

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Unknown - 29 Jul 2007 21:33 GMT

Lenovo which is the PC successor to IBM would have the CD's you need to
install Windows XP.

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Anthony Buckland - 31 Jul 2007 23:53 GMT

>A few months ago I bought a Lenovo computer with Vista installed. My
>intention was to try Vista and see if I liked it - I don't! I know that the
>machine can run XP, but the Lenovo web site has nothing useful except video
>and audio drivers.
>
> I plan to reformat the HD, then install XP us usual. ...

You do realize that you're going to junk all the other software preinstalled
on your Lenovo? I have no idea how much, if any, of this will have
CDs supplied with the machine; but in the case of my current XP
machine, the answer for the factory-installed software would be
"damned little."

Having helped someone recently install XP on a previously Win98SE
machine, I noted that XP does a pretty good job of preserving the
applications running with Win98, and of listing those which need
reinstallation or a decent burial instead. Has anyone tested XP's
ability to do the same during a downgrade from Vista?

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