Vista to XP help!!!!

Question

I need help with an install on a new lap top from VISTA to XP PRO. I just bought a Gateway and it has VISTA HOME on it. I bought the following software with it: WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION and WINDOWS XP PRO. Both cost $199.99 a piece. The salesman said I could not upgrade to XP PRO without installing XP HOME first. So I bought them both. When I put the HOME or PRO disk in the following error message appears, "Set up cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD."

I am not worried about losing any data, b/c there is none on the CPU. Please let me now how I can accomplish this task and get the XP disk on my computer.

Answer 1

First off the salesman lied to you. You can go straight to xp pro if you want. Put the disk in the drive and reboot. Make sure the computer is set to boot from your cd-rom. It will ask you to press any key to boot from the cd and just hit the enter key. Then you can format and run the setup.

Answer 2

A few things



1. You can install XP Pro without XP Home, the XP Pro CD just needs to be bootable, I have installed XP Pro bunches of times without installing XP Home



2. Are you sure you even need Pro? Unless you plan to use it as a Remote Desktop host/server, connect it to a domain based network, or really overhaul the system, you don't need to use XP Pro, XP Home will suit your needs fine



3. Vista does have it's bugs and incompatibility, but you may just want to spend some time messing around with it first before completely erasing if from your hard drive, with no way of getting it back, who knows, it may work fine for what you want to do, then if it it becomes too overbearing, you can replace it with XP, or you can choose to multiboot later on



To install XP Pro (though Home may be more suited for you), put in the XP Pro CD and reboot the computer, as the computer boots look at the splashscreen, it should say something like "F1:Setup" or something like that, whatever that says tap that key on the keyboard to enter your BIOS, the most common BIOS entry keys are F1, ESC, the ESC on the number pad, and Ctrl, go to where the boot order list is and select the CD/DVD drive (whatever the main optical drive is) and set that to boot first, followed after the hard drive, then save your settings and exit out of the BIOS, after the computer reboots, wait for the message saying (Press any key to boot from CD...), then press a key on the keyboard, the screen should turn blue and say "Windows Setup" in the upper left, on the bottom of the screen, there should be a gray bar, that should show all the files it is loading into the RAM for install, continue as normal until you see the hard drive/partition selection screen, remove all partitions so it shows up as 1 blank hard drive (unformatted), then select the hard drive and begin install, do a full format with NTFS, it will then format, install Windows then reboot for setup, when you reboot, when the message comes up asking you to press any key to boot from CD, don't do anything, it will skip booting from the CD and boot from the hard drive, and you will go through the second half of installing and setup, this is where you put in your time and date, your system language, usernames, internet connection, and all the other setup information, then it will reboot again, this time running Windows as normal, then you can log in and use Windows, at this point, it is going to bug you to activate Windows, if you are connected to the internet, it will just send the information to Microsoft and you are done

Answer 3

You have to wipe out the drive first obviously and since the XP disks won't run setup, that creates a problem. Did the machine come with a Vista Cd as well? If so, you could run Setup from that CD, wipe the drive and exit Setup.



If there's no Vista Cd, you make have a recovery partition on the drive that can restore your Vista installation. These restore partitions often have the option to wipe the drive as well. Check on the gateway website for the keystroke combination you press at boot-time to start the recovery partition.

Answer 4

wow, errm, the thought that wnet through the salesman's head as you bought them "Theres one born every minute"

first off ,you do not need XP home edition to install XP pro edtion, and secondly the price you paid is more than it costs to get a new copy of Vista.



if your dead set on sticking a 7 year old OS on your new laptop, you need to format it first. you should be able to do this wiht the XP CD, use the "repair" option on the Disc.



if you have no fiels on the computer, aprt form Vista, then you odnt need to wrooy.

though when youve doen laoding on XP you will need to go onlien n hunt the drivers, and get all the updates etc.

Answer 5

You could download this program called windows washer to complete erase you hard drive operating system and all... then use you Xp home disk and start a new Install.. This is exactly what I did and it worked flawlessly.... But i only installed Home Edition