Can’t install Win XP over Vista/Ubuntu

I have Toshiba Satellite Laptop which had Vista home edition preinstalled on it. I installed the latest Ubuntu on top of it. Now I want to remove both Vista and Ubuntu from it and install Win XP and Fedora on it. The trouble is I can't run the Win XP installer from inside Vista. Fair enough. So I changed the boot option from BIOS and made it boot from the Win XP CD. The system starts booting up but ends at the Caldera DOS Screen :-(. It also says No FAT32 file system found. However it can detect the drives in DOS mode.

It pops up a console window with a: as its root directory. From their onward, I can see various directories and use DOS commands :( but when I run Win XP setup, it says that it can't run in Non graphical mode.

Please help.

This is a licensed version of Win XP.

Geek

Posted 2010-02-05T08:04:34.173

Reputation: 111

@Arjan - In the end it doesn't matter which one came first, I think, the final goal is to have one question with the most/best answers. – Gnoupi – 2010-02-05T10:24:19.173

@Gnoupi, of course, I was just trying to prevent both being closed ;-) (And while the single answer at http://superuser.com/questions/105081/cant-install-win-xp-over-vista-ubuntu was posted by a non-SU user, that user cannot be asked to copy their answer... But, now that the other one is closed, all is fine with me.)

– Arjan – 2010-02-05T10:31:04.680

(@Geek, I guess you can still associate your accounts at http://serverfault.com/users/28988?tab=accounts#tab-top If you also want to take ownership of http://superuser.com/questions/82599/windows-xp-display-is-stretched then I guess you can send an email to team@)

– Arjan – 2010-02-05T10:33:32.130

Answers

You have to format the drive, because the Windows XP boot CD doesn't recognize your Windows Vista partition.

(This once caused me to accidently erase my external drive instead of my internal one)

If your motherboard boots from USB you can use Active@ Kill Disk to clean your disk and install Windows XP on it.

Active@ KillDisk - Hard Drive Eraser is powerful and compact software that allows you to destroy all data on hard and floppy drives completely, excluding any possibility of future recovery of deleted files and folders. It's a hard drive and partition eraser utility.

If you use FDISK, FORMAT utilities, or DELETE standard operating system command for data removal, there is always a chance to recover deleted files (using undelete utility or some data recovery software) and use against the owner's will. We highly recommend you to run this FREE utility for the hard and floppy drives you want to dispose of, recycle, re-use, sell or donate to somebody.

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Ivo Flipse

Posted 2010-02-05T08:04:34.173

Reputation: 24 054

What version of Windows XP do you use? If you don't have a Windows XP SP2/3 Install CD you can stop bothering, it won't work most likely (missing drivers etc). Try to get a hold of a new Install CD in that case or remaster your own.

Bobby

Posted 2010-02-05T08:04:34.173

Reputation: 8 534

I can find the drivers later. Also why can I not upgrade to SP2 via the web ? – Geek – 2010-02-05T08:35:22.807

So, you don't even have a SP2 Install-CD? Well, in that case missing SATA-Drivers are your problem. The older CDs are all missing drivers for newer PCs and Laptops, they just don't work on them. – Bobby – 2010-02-05T08:57:41.040

Ya Bob, that seems to be the problem :-( Any ideas on how Microsoft Licensing works ? Like I said this was an original CD I had purchased just didn't happen to use it for years. I was hoping that I will be able to upgrade to SP2/SP3 via the web. – Geek – 2010-02-05T09:28:34.293

No, sorry I have no idea, but you could try their support. But you could use NLite (http://www.nliteos.com/) to create your own.

– Bobby – 2010-02-05T09:45:19.620

Once you start te installation & you have a working network connection (if your modem/adsl router DOES NOT require any driver to work) then you can do an update of the XP contents before installation begins. But you will need the SATA harddisk detected to reach that stage, & to get the SATA harddisk detected, you will need to slipstream SATA drivers into the XP Cd or use a floppy drive to install the SATA driver before XP is installed. – Ganesh R. – 2010-02-05T18:44:05.940

I think the XP CD cannot detect your disk, probably because they are SATA harddisks.

You will need to use a remastered Windows XP CD which has the SATA drivers slipstreamed or use a floppy disk & install the SATA drivers before you start XP installation (by pressing F6 during XP CD boot load process.)

Ganesh R.

Posted 2010-02-05T08:04:34.173

Reputation: 4 869

Remastered Win XP CD ?? What do add to it ?? – Geek – 2010-02-05T09:39:02.770

'Remastered' XP CD means use NLite to slipstream the SATA drivers into the XP Contents, create an ISO image (Nlite simplifies the process) & use it to format the PC. – Ganesh R. – 2010-02-05T17:20:19.180