Unable to Install Windows XP over Windows 7Solved/Closed

Question

Hello,
 I have installed windows 7 and I want to switch back to windows XP.But I am not able to install it.All the time it gives a blue screen and says the harddrive might be curropted or there might be virus.This is being happening after the installation of windows 7.
I formatted the drive once even then the same problem.System Configuration: Windows
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JOHN JEASter · Accepted Answer

Heres the step on how you can install xp on pre installed win 7.

On the Setup of your bios. 
Choose the ATA instead of AHCI on the SATA configuration..
 then now apply the changes. then insert your cd on the cd rom. make sure you have chosen the cd as your first boot device.

gragrand · Answer

Dear Sir,

You can rollback the changes, 

You will have to format your computer and install windows XP again

Thanks

bASE_dbguy · Answer

Hey Guys,  I was running into this problem too.  My BSOD was during the windows xp install, it would get to the part where the bottom of the screen would say preparing to install windows then dead.  Here is the only fix I could figure out:  (unfortunately this fix assumes you have an image of the computer before the Win7 install)

Remove the harddrive from the computer.

Use a USB adapter or an external enclosure to plug the drive into another computer.

Format the drive to NTFS.

Put the harddrive back in the original computer.

Put in your Imaging CD (I use Acronis).

Flash your image back on to the harddrive.

I had to go through about 6 hours of work using this method to take a test computer from Windows 7 64-bit, to Windows Server 2003.

Hope this helps someone.

Snapper · Answer

Thanks for your Fix RO39
Disabled  "Native SATA"
On an HP Laptop HP550 worked like a charm allowing XP to be installed from scratch

Thanks for the tip

Snapper

marceld · Answer

Here is what I did for people who have a netbook but found in hard doing it with a bootable usb:

1. Buy an external enclosed dvd drive unit, they sell for around $30.  
2. Setup BIOS to boot from CD/usb unit.
3. Put the operation disc in the DVD unit and install the same way as if your netbook had a CD/DVD drive.
4. This is the best way for people who are not that techie, and also this way saves you time but not money, which is sometimes a good trade off.

*But the way I did mine by using an old usb hard drive enclosure.  I have a desktop computer and this is what I did:
1. Removed the backing on the enclosure unit
2. Open the desktop computer and removed the ide and power cables from the dvd rom drive.
3. Installed the enclosure backing on the dvd drive
4. Hooked up the usb connection from the unit to the netbook.
5. Setup the Bios to boot from cd/dvd drive
6. Installed windows xp
7. Done

alexmo · Answer

I had the same problem as I wanted to install Win XP before the expiration of the pre-installed trial Windows 7. I followed the advice from John JEASter (this thread) but it didn't work. I kept getting a hang up on 'verifying DMI pool data' when I rebooted after installing Win XP. I even phoned the manufacturer of my PC and talked to the Tech guys and they suspected it was a corrupted BIOS. However, what I did was to format the whole drive eliminating the 100MB system partition used by Windows 7 and then everything worked fine. Presumably this 100MB partition kept trying to load Windows 7 (which had been deleted) and this caused the problem.

Unable to Install Windows XP over Windows 7

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