Vista is annoying... need XP

[Loofer]

I recently bought a new laptop 2 months ago from Currys. It came
pre-loaded with Visa Home Premium.

I thought this would be a plus but have since found that theres some hardware that just aren't compatible.

I bought a USB to IDE cable on eBay a few weeks ago in he hope of eing able to hook the laptop upto my old HDD from PC. OS wouldn't recognise/find drivers.

I was condsidering buying a Vag Tacho cable but I believe that wont work with Vista either.

I've tried to craete a partition on laptop HDD so I can have XP loaded on there. Can't create partition properly... throwing up errors

AAArrgghh.

Any ideas people. I'm considering jus buying a cheap (upto £50) laptop on eBay just for XP and can use VAG Tacho.

[Eshrules]

I recently bought a new laptop 2 months ago from Currys. It came
pre-loaded with Visa Home Premium.

I thought this would be a plus but have since found that theres some hardware that just aren't compatible.

I bought a USB to IDE cable on eBay a few weeks ago in he hope of eing able to hook the laptop upto my old HDD from PC. OS wouldn't recognise/find drivers.

I was condsidering buying a Vag Tacho cable but I believe that wont work with Vista either.

I've tried to craete a partition on laptop HDD so I can have XP loaded on there. Can't create partition properly... throwing up errors

AAArrgghh.

Any ideas people. I'm considering jus buying a cheap (upto £50) laptop on eBay just for XP and can use VAG Tacho.

have you tried using a partition manager? i daren't use windows own, too risky for my liking. if you've only just bought the laptop, im sure if you went back and asked them, they'd give you a copy of XP licensed. i've tried vista myself, but the one thing that put me off, was its inability to support my 5.1 surround sound, a MUST when i have my tunes on!

i dont think vagtacho has the driver support for Vista yet, although i cant actually see why... i wouldnt want you to risk it though but just thinking about it, its only a comms cable, drivers are more or less universal:Blush2:

[Eshrules]

just as a side note, i bought a cheapy laptop, a compaq armada, only has 256 of ram, but its fine for what i use it for, i run my vagcom, tacho and can commander off it.... £55 delivered to my door ;) (eBay)

[Loofer]

just as a side note, i bought a cheapy laptop, a compaq armada, only has 256 of ram, but its fine for what i use it for, i run my vagcom, tacho and can commander off it.... £55 delivered to my door ;) (eBay)

I think I might just do that Carl. It's a shame really because I've got a laptop from work aswell which has XP on it but I have limited user priviledges so that prohibitms me from installing software/drivers. Administrator wouldn't allow that even if I asked.


I'll just be patient and keep an eye out on eBay. Theres some for £30+ but they are ancient. I'm taking 300Mhz CPU and 64mb RAM

[Eshrules]

I think I might just do that Carl. It's a shame really because I've got a laptop from work aswell which has XP on it but I have limited user priviledges so that prohibitms me from installing software/drivers. Administrator wouldn't allow that even if I asked.


I'll just be patient and keep an eye out on eBay. Theres some for £30+ but they are ancient. I'm taking 300Mhz CPU and 64mb RAM

LOL i just checked mine... mines only a 400 mhz, dont forget it can still run xp. i have 2000 running on mine, and although slow, it does the job :beerchug:

[Sam]

Download a Linux Live CD and use GParted to partition your HDD.

Ubuntu is my favourite but there are many flavours out there

[dessimpson]

I got my little laptop from flea-bay too. £180, p3 1.2 Ghz and 512mb ram.

I also threw 200 genuine copies of XP Pro into a shredder this afternoon too :D

[Loofer]

Download a Linux Live CD and use GParted to partition your HDD.

Ubuntu is my favourite but there are many flavours out there

I've already won a laptop on eBay (£42 delivered) 233 Mhz, 96MB RAM and 4GB HDD

I would still rather have XP on my own machine.

So I've used Live CD/GParted and managed to partition (primary) 5GB of space. This shows in System manager but dosn't show in My Computer as separate drive.

Does it need to be a separate volume for me to install/boot XP from?
How do I do that (create volume)?
Whats the difference between volume and partition?

[gazza57]

eezupp, you're right,
All versions of the office software for XP won't run on a vista platform or runs but with problems.
Surprised this has been allowed to reach the shops, getting a cheap laptop for your VAG tacho seems a sensible strategy
Gazza57

[Loofer]

I'm in desparate trouble.

Iv partitioned the drive and managed to install XP on there which loads up fine, though I cant get on the net (currently using work laptop to write here). the laptop has built in wireless. Dont know how to get XP to recognise.

I cant boot up from Vista now, even though I know its still on the HDD. How can I get the option to choose OS at boot up.

I know its something to do with the 'boot.ini' file. Because I've played around with that.
Alternatively:
IF anybody has VISTA then please could you copy the contents of this file boot.ini and paste here

You can access the file by
Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> System
-> Advanced tab
Then under Startup & Recovery, click Settings
then click Edit

or
1.Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
3. Under System Startup, click Edit.


I'm desparate here

[onzarob]

I run vista ultimate on my laptop and have done since January. No real problems Vagcom with ebay bought USB lead works well.

Carl if you want to increase your volume size then use diskpart, its part of windows and works perfectly.

the difference between a partition and a volume is the partiton is the space allocated for use on a hardisk, a volume is the size of the partion used for dos/ntfs. if you increase the partiton size you still need to expand the volume to use it.

If you want to dual boot XP and windows 2003 you need both partition to be fat32, I'm not sure if Vista is the same, i would suspect that your voulme is ntfs and you can't downgrade it to FAT32 without reinstalling the os:(

[onzarob]

press F8 for boot choices.

sorry i posted the rest before i read your help;)

[onzarob]

this article may help you, form what i can gather the boot ini has gone in vista, but i haven't got the time to look into detail, maybe later.

http://chris123nt.com/guides/Beta1_5112/

[Loofer]

been doing a little reading around. its actually the bootsect.exe file I need. If you have Vista on a CD/DVD then you will find it in the Boot folder. Please PM me.

[dessimpson]

been doing a little reading around. its actually the bootsect.exe file I need. If you have Vista on a CD/DVD then you will find it in the Boot folder. Please PM me.


I've got Vista Ultimate on DVD. If it's just that file (bootsect.exe) that you need then i can e-mail you it. Just give us a shout :)

[dessimpson]

eezupp, you're right,
All versions of the office software for XP won't run on a vista platform or runs but with problems.
Surprised this has been allowed to reach the shops, getting a cheap laptop for your VAG tacho seems a sensible strategy
Gazza57


Have you tried office 2007??
It's sooooo different to all the previous versions that it might actually be worth the ridiculous price that microsoft charge. (p.s. I haven't bought it myself but we have it at work (I use Open Office ;)))

[Loofer]

Thanks Rob and Dessimpson for the offers of help. After a 6-8 hour ball ache I fninally manged to get Vista back up and running.

Vista uses MBR (Memory Boot Record) to boot up. XP uses the boot.ini file. Apparently XP overwrites this MBR so you no longer can boot Vista.

So you need a copy of this Bootsect.exe file and enter the following comman in DOS
bootsect.exe /NT60 ALL
The command is preceeded by the directory/ies where the file sits.

This file can be found in the Boot folder of the Vista CD/DVD you get when you bought it.

If like me, however, it came preloaded, then its unlikely you will be able to find this file.

What you need is a program called VistaBootPro. It can be downloaded for free. It has this file, but you ca just use the friendly interface to do the same job.

I didn't have net access when XP was loaded so I had to use my work laptop to access net. Unfortunately I can't instal programs using that laptop (limiteduser account priviledges).

After trawling loads of tech forums asking around for a copy of this file I had a much needed and delayed brain wave:rolleyes:

I d/l VistaBootPro, burned it to CD and installed on my personal laptop.. well I tried to but it needed .Net Framework 2.0
so I d/l .Net on my work laptop, b urn it to disk and installed on my personal lapto... well tried to.. but now I neede Windows Installer3.0
so you can guess what I did next... :zx11:

Finally installed VistaBootPro and now I'm back on Vista:D

I've sill got XP on my oher partition but now that wont boot from the selection menu. I hink I'm just gona format that partition and leave XP.

Thanks again all

[dessimpson]

Here's instructions on how to do it


http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp


Try again or give up??? :D:D

[Loofer]

waheyyyy... I've finally done it

After alot of google'in and trial n error I've finally got both versions running

In the BCDedit.exe (using command line prompt)
I typed
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot

rather than
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=d:
(where D:\ was the drive where XP was installed)

The former command got it to work because it boots from the 'active' partition.


As for the old laptop I won on eBay.. I contacted the seller and offered to pay £10 via PayPal as a nominal sum to release me from any obligation to buy. Better than paying the full £43. Win Win!!:D

[onzarob]

Vista uses MBR (Memory Boot Record) to boot up.

MBR is Master Boot Record;)

secondly I havn't read any of the info, but i would assume that the best way to dual boot is install XO first then vista. You would then not have this issue as Vista now hows to boot XP and read the partiton.

I know your laptop already had Vista installed so this was not an option, I personally wouldn't of done it taht way, I would buy VM Workstation V6 and run it as a virtual machine.

I done this and it is ace;) I run a MCE XP machine at home with a 2003 server virtual machine on it running webmail and a webserver, saves having two pc's burning electricity!!!

[Sam]

I'm dual booting Vista & Ubuntu on my desktop and XP and Ubuntu on my laptop.

I had all the answers but I'm too late now!

Glad you got it all sorted though :D

[wacky77]

I have Vista AND xp on my laptop, its called 'dual booting' heres a link on how to do it-
thehttp://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed _first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

These instructions also show you how to compress your current partition to allow space for a new partition to put XP on (using command prompt)

I personally found it easier to do by wiping the hard drive, creating the necessary partitions, loading XP first on one partition then loading Vista o to the second partition as Vista will automatically let you boot into either whilst XP overwrites the Vista boot files.

However an easy way to fix this is to download 'easy BCD' which is free to download and gives you an easy way to fine tune the dual boot (after you've got both systems on)

If you live anywhere near Dewsbury, West Yorks and have a couple of hours to spare bring it down and I'll show you how to do it.

[Captain Answer]

I'd try installing Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 onto the vista machine and installing XP (if you have the software) you could buy it if you haven't. This would allow you to do as you please on the VM without touching Vista

OR if you really dont want vista anymore, put XP on the exsisting laptop *** MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DRIVERS FIRST***

Dual booting IMO is a waste of time and resources

[OSB]

I had Vista totally crash on my laptop, took it to the States with me and "mislaid the power lead", by the time I realised I was on 4% power and arranged to get the lead shipped back to the UK as I was flying back the following morning. 3 weeks later, reunited with the lead, all was good for 24hrs and then Vista refused to boot, no matter what I did, plus I didn't have the original disc. Took the oportunity to upgrade the HDD and the memory to 250GB and 4GB - ordered from ebuyer along with a SATA caddy. Got a copy of XP Pro from Amazon, installed the hardware, installed XP, coppied what I needed off the old HDD in the caddy. Runs like a dream now, much better than ever before, plus I have a useful and highly portable 160GB extra on the old HDD in the caddy.

[christech]

same here trying to set up my epson printer on the fangled vista seems impossible downloaded the vista patches,what a waste of time,just another useless file on my new pc.
aaarrrrgggghhhhh vista vista

[Andy J]

If you put Vista on your new laptop you will invalidate your guarentee, seriously, I had this with PC World, part of the same group as Currys and they categoricaly told me if I put XP on any new PC they sell that the guarentee would be void.

[onzarob]

If you put Vista on your new laptop you will invalidate your guarentee, seriously, I had this with PC World, part of the same group as Currys and they categoricaly told me if I put XP on any new PC they sell that the guarentee would be void.

That the craziest thing I heard all day, I bet Microsoft would be overjoyed to here that :confused:

[Sam]

If you put Vista on your new laptop you will invalidate your guarentee, seriously, I had this with PC World, part of the same group as Currys and they categoricaly told me if I put XP on any new PC they sell that the guarentee would be void.

Any chance you could get it in writing from them, I'd love to see what I could do with that :D

[Andy J]

Any chance you could get it in writing from them, I'd love to see what I could do with that :D

I'm not sure of the legalities, I'm just going on what the salesman told me when I said I would prefer XP, to be honest I bought a laptop with Vista on it and so far I haven't had any problems with it so I don't know what all the fuss is about.

[wacky77]

they'll change the OS for you though, for around £80!! (according to a freind who bought one with vista on it but wanted XP)
Personally wouldn't touch these big outfits (not naming anyone lol) and I repair laptops and pc's as a hobby.
I once repaired a laptop that had been declared damaged beyond repair (kept turning itself off) by one of these outfits simply so they could sell the owner a new laptop, which they did.
-All it needed was the cooling fins blasting out with an air duster and has been working fine for the past 6 months with no problems whatsoever.
Another was declared beyong repair by a different outfit which just needed a tiny blob of solder on the DC jack to motherboard connection to repair, a very easy fix, certainly cheaper to repair than buying a new one.
Anyway, if you really want to use a different OS than supplied but don't want to invalidate the guarantee (I'm assuming there are security stickers over the HDD cover so you can't just replace the HDD) get an external HDD, put XP on it and change the boot menu in the BIOS to 'boot from USB' or 'boot from external device' first. Only problem is not all computers support this feature so check your bios first (most new pcs/laptops support this though, and if it doesn't you may be able to update the bios to do this, usually as a free download from the manufacturers website)
Personally I prefer vista and haven't had any problems with it, the only reason I still have the dual boot function with XP is because there are still a few programs I need that don't support Vista OS, which, actually, IS the one problem I have with Vista lol.
Bring on Windows 7.....

[onzarob]

they'll change the OS for you though, for around £80!! (according to a freind who bought one with vista on it but wanted XP)
Personally wouldn't touch these big outfits (not naming anyone lol) and I repair laptops and pc's as a hobby.


No one use a soldering iron anymore!!! When I started out, In my first Job I used to repair BBC B Micros. used to sit there for hours with an oscilloscope and testing the signal output to find the faulty IC. It was then desoldered and replaced.

Now the whole thing is ripped out and replaced...so wastefull:(

[Ben]

When I started out, In my first Job I used to repair BBC B Micros. used to sit there for hours with an oscilloscope and testing the signal output to find the faulty IC.

I have no idea what this means, one can only assume its to do with broadcasting in black and white:confused:

Then again it couldn't possibly be this as rob appears to be a young man.;)

Is it to do with digital?:confused:

p.s. I'm forever having to 'fix' mothers lap top after she has 'fiddled' with it unnecessarily.

[onzarob]

I have no idea what this means, one can only assume its to do with broadcasting in black and white:confused:

Then again it couldn't possibly be this as rob appears to be a young man.;)

Is it to do with digital?:confused:

It is Digital in its true form 5 volts TTL unlike this modern 3.5 volt CMOS rubbish they now use :(



p.s. I'm forever having to 'fix' mothers lap top after she has 'fiddled' with it unnecessarily.

That Software problems...a different issue. we call it a 'Code 18' the problem is 18 inches from the screen:Blush2:

[paul b]

That Software problems...a different issue. we call it a 'Code 18' the problem is 18 inches from the screen:Blush2:
:biglaugh:

p.s. I'm forever having to 'fix' mothers lap top after she has 'fiddled' with it unnecessarily.
When I had my photocopying business, we called it a human interface malfunction. :p

[Sam]

I'm not sure of the legalities, I'm just going on what the salesman told me when I said I would prefer XP, to be honest I bought a laptop with Vista on it and so far I haven't had any problems with it so I don't know what all the fuss is about.

Most fuss is made by people who haven't used it, those that have (and have a clue what they're doing) don't complain as much.

I'm on my 3rd year of Vista Home Premium (bought in Feb 2007) and I've not had any issues to complain about.

[Desertfish]

If you put Vista on your new laptop you will invalidate your guarentee, seriously, I had this with PC World, part of the same group as Currys and they categoricaly told me if I put XP on any new PC they sell that the guarentee would be void.

I'm pretty sure that if you were to rely on the guarantee while you had XP installed instead of Vista, Trading Standards would have a field day because the guy you consulted in PC World was talking out of his rear end... (excuse my language). Guarentee is for the hardware, not software. I fail to see how installing another OS would damage the hardware. Then again, I've never been impressed with some of the answers I got from people in PC world... When I was asking for screen whipes a few years ago, I was told they didn't have them in stock anymore, but there was nothing wrong with using water to clean my CRT's... Never set foot in PC World since...

[borabeast]

Ha ha code 18, quality.
I am a walking code 18.

[Desertfish]

That Software problems...a different issue. we call it a 'Code 18' the problem is 18 inches from the screen:Blush2:

We usually call it an IO problem (= Idiot Operator).

[Captain Answer]

If you put Vista on your new laptop you will invalidate your guarentee, seriously, I had this with PC World, part of the same group as Currys and they categoricaly told me if I put XP on any new PC they sell that the guarentee would be void.

This is quite possibly the stupidest thing i've ever heard, they cannot control programs loaded onto a machine OS or otherwise. Particularly when I'd near gurantee not all that long ago they were selling the same machines with XP on as standard rather than vista.

[MalcQV]

This is quite possibly the stupidest thing i've ever heard, they cannot control programs loaded onto a machine OS or otherwise. Particularly when I'd near gurantee not all that long ago they were selling the same machines with XP on as standard rather than vista.

Andy I think you may lose software support on the laptop but as the Captain says they cannot invalidate your guarantee (which is really the hardware).

[ImCammers]

Andy I think you may lose software support on the laptop but as the Captain says they cannot invalidate your guarantee (which is really the hardware).

I really wouldn't recommend using these companies to buy computers, there just awful to deal with. And to be fair, they cant stop you from XP on a Vista machine, but the only problem you will have is with Drivers for the hardware. Often manufactures only create one set of drivers, unless the machine was specifically shipped with a different O/S.