My experience downgrading Windows Vista to Windows Xp.

My company bought a brand new HP notebook with Windows Vista installed. Due to business reason I have to downgrade it to Windows Xp Pro. I thought it is straight forward process, so I just grab my Windows Xp Pro installer( Original) and put it inside the DVD drive. I restart the notebook and make sure the notebook boot from Windows Xp CD. As normal I reach to the screen where I have to select weather to install, repair or quit. I hit the enter key for install, and the next message I get is the installation cannot continue because no hard disk detected. I thought I make mistake and repeat the process. Again I received the same message. So I know something not right. I do a search using google and manage to get a few opinion from forum. I tried and one method work for me. The process that I did is,

1.Make sure the new HP notebook has driver for Windows XP Pro. I check with HP website and yes, there is driver for Windows Xp Pro. So I download and keep the driver in my external Hard Disk.
2.With the Windows XP CD still inside the DVD drive, I turn on the notebook
3.Keep tapping the F10 key when the Compaq logo appears. This will take you to BIOS Setup Utility.
4.Using arrow key I go to “System Configuration tab”.
5.Under that select you will see SATA Native support. The default value is enable, so I disable it.
6.Press F10 to "Save and Exit" the BIOS.
7.Click on OK/Yes to confirm the changes.
8.Restart the notebook.
9.The notebook boot up from Windows XP CD.
10. As normal, I reach to the screen where I have to select weather to install, repair or quit. I hit the enter key than I get the screen that show the partition.
11.After that I just do as normal and I manage to install Windows XP Pro. :-)


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