"Downgrading" to XP

[artyk]

Hi, all.

I am currently trying to "downgrade" a friend's laptop from Vista to XP. It's a Sony Vaio VGN-FW139E. 250GB HD. Intel Core2 Duo. (I'm not sure of all the specs).

Whenever I would try the install, it would blue screen at the "starting Windows" part of the install. I googled that error and got several things to try, none of which worked. Then I zero filled the drive and tried again. Still nothing. I tried slipstreaming the SATA drivers and installing them via floppy, both to no avail. I tried updating the BIOS. I even tried doing the initial part of the install on another machine to try to get it past the part that was choking.

Is there anything I'm missing in the "downgrade" process? This is my first attempt at it and it's obviously not going well. Thanks in advance.

 

[artyk]

Problem solved, everyone. Thanks for the help. The problem was that I was trying to slipsream manually, when I should have been using nlite the whole time. Thanks again!

 

[Perplxd]

Hi Artyk,

Thanks for the post. You are the first person I have seen to succesfully downgrade the VGN-FW139E to XP. I have the identical problem with the same computer. PLEASE, can you give a step by step synopsis of exactly what you did? I can't live with Vista! Step by step would be a gift. Thx.

 

[goombawaho]

It's sort of a dirty little secret that not all USB floppy drives will allow you to load XP drivers during setup. It's seems insane at first, but it's true. I'm luck I figured that out before I purchased my USB floppy just for that purpose.

Seems like a conspiracy that not all USB floppies would work.