Hi does anybody know how much a new copy of Windows XP would cost? I have to install it again my laptop’s hard drive is F’d up. It came with Vista originally but I had to replace the hard drive in January, I got a copy of a copy of XP and until today everything was ok. So, ideas?
List price is $199 for the full install disk, or $99 for and upgrade disk, which requires a disk from a previous version of Windows.
Did you have XP installed on this laptop already?
Doesn’t Vista have a rollback to XP license option?
It’s a pirate copy of XP I got through work. I can’t roll back Vista because I had to replace the hard drive so I no longer have it any more.
I think this was a joke. From the Onion, maybe? If not, fight my ignorance.
If this laptop has a SATA drive, the XP installation disk won’t recognize it without supplying drivers via a floppy drive, which your laptop likely does not have.
In short, installing XP on a laptop with a SATA is a PITA.
I have the drivers on a USB memory stick, will this do?
It definitely used to be an option, for real. Not sure if MS have withdrawn it though.
Some info (not up to date) here:
Yes. If your laptop is able to use the memory stick to emulate a floppy. This is usually settable in the BIOS.
Don’t get XP64 - it’s a dead end. I’d recommend whichever OS you use at work. If you’re feeling brave, you could try the beta of Windows 7. At least you’d save some money.
No. [ETA - unless your computer does what QED suggests.] XP install only recognizes a floppy drive. Some people have burned their own XP install disk that slipstreams the SATA driver, but you need a second computer to do that.
Not true, changing a simple BIOS option ususally fixes that problem
Older machines may not have this BIOS option.
Many laptops don’t have that option, ie HP DV6000 series.
This is pretty easy using nLite. This free software takes a copy of an XP install disk and creates a new one with additional drivers. You do have to supply the drivers for it to add; if it wasn’t included with the computer and the manufacturer’s web site doesn’t have it, you may need to try the manufacturer of the chipset.
And you can do it on the same computer if it has a CD-R drive. nLite itself can run under Vista. I’ve done it myself recently.
If your copy of Vista was Business or Ultimate edition then you can install XP Pro using downgrade rights (direct .doc link). You’ll have to call Microsoft during activation rather than doing it online, but otherwise it shouldn’t be a problem.
My computer came with a SATA drive and I installed XP SP2 without any problems with SATA drives.
Are you sure it’s not operating in IDE mode? Some (all?) SATA adapters can be configured to run in IDE compatibility mode - it’s in the BIOS settings somewhere. If you set it to IDE mode, XP will install without additional drivers, but I understand the performance of the hard drive will be reduced. And you can’t change it after installation.
When the laptop hard drive originally failed I bought a new blank one. I was given a copy of Windows XP Pro so I had to install this manually. It installed fine so I went online and got all the drivers for the machine and stored them on a USB stick, from this I installed the drivers. Until yesterday the machine was working fine. Now when I start it up I get as far as the desktop screen but that’s all. I can’t open anything or even shut it down. I have to hold the power button until it shuts off. I must have made a mistake somewhere I’m just not sure where. As I mentioned before, it is a copy of a copy of Windows, could that be the problem?
You can get good deals on OEM versions. There are lots if you search Google for Windows OEM. Here’s one for XP Home at $93.95.
I’m not sure of the legal status of the OEM versions being sold like that but companies have been doing it long enough that it must be either quite legit or MS don’t really care. They’re usually shipped with some worthless piece of hardware such as an oddball cable to satisfy the requirement that it only be sold with hardware.