Dusenberg

Hi I have XP sp2 on a SATA disk'd PC that is running the disks in IDE mode. I want to switch the BIOS to run them in SATA mode. Question is can I upgrade the drivers without re-installing XP? If so How? Anyone know? Thanks in advance

So I was too smart......... I bought a Phillips x66 notebook (UK - which now I know means single-supplier PC-World and spin-off Tec-Guys OEM & support) with pre-installed vista ultimate with AMI BIOS and decided I wanted XP on it as well to retain compatibility with my home PC. I looked on internet and found a "how to" (yes I know...now!) that said - simple. Shrink partition using gparted, install xp, then use vista recovery to fix everything! EASY....... not. I had gathered all the xp drivers for the x66 - sata etc and created a nLite iso to do install......... Well .... I had guessed that vista would not like the repartition and sure enough after shrinkage when I rebooted it fell into TecGuy recovery mode. I ignored this as I knew XP install would scribble all over the disk MBR and so I'd have to run Vista recovery anyway......... ...so I went ahead with XP install, which went well until it did a reboot..... the pc hung at the PHILIPS BIOS startup splash screen. I couldn't get to BIOS Setup. Pressing DEL just got a POST-type display that stopped after it 'detected hard drive'... It displayed it was 'entering SETUP' but it didn't get to the blue screens.... It also wouldn't boot from CD/DVD, which rather scuppered things. No HDD boot, no DVD/CD boot.. ergo no boot. I removed the hard drive and, lo, the system booted from CD. I replaced the hard drive and it wouldn't. I took the HD to someone with a spare SATA chassis and they found a disk partition error.... Deleted the partition I'd created so no partition errors. Put HD back in laptop and started - same problem........ what the f&*K! Clearly the BIOS is sensing HDD VISTA configs and forcing an OEM reboot if it finds a HDD with messed up data, and prevents a CD boot .... which of course won;t work if disk is scrubbed... AGHHHH! Any ideas! or is this OEM Re-seller lock-in??????

Thanks Ponch - I had hoped to avoid having to pull the case apart, but I guess that's all I can do now.

Hi Anyone out there can help? I have relatively new Philips x66 laptop with Vista Ultimate pre-installed - it has a 'hidden' partition holding the vista 'repair/install' environment. I wanted to put XP on it and decided to go for dual-boot. The laptop is SATA so I created a new install CD using nLite incorporating all the necessary drivers. I used 'gparted' to resize the vista partition. I rebooted immediately after and the system threw me straight into the OEM Vista recovery screen. I assumed this was because Vista didn't know about the resized partition, and as the XP install was going to scribble all over the MBR which would mean a Vista recovery anyway, I didn't bother to do a recovery. I just went on to the XP install. I then ran the XP install CD I'd created. It saw the SATA drive no probs and copied everything across. It then restarted the laptop - but unfortunately everything then went pear-shaped! The laptop hung at the Philips startup splashscreen. I noticed the 'Intel Centrino' logo on the splashscreen seemed lower resolution. I tried to boot from a CD but it wouldn't - I tried several CDs. I tried hitting Del to get into BIOS. In past this got me to a BIOS Setup screen - but not now. All I got was the Self-test output. Everything reports ok, the last message is 'primary sata disk..... status ok'. Then nothing. Tried hitting all the keys and in different combinations. Took batteries out and power lead off, and held 'start' down for 10 secs - just the same. I could get into BIOS Setup before by hitting Del, not now. BIOS is American Megatrends. Basically I have a dead laptop. How come? Does XP install/nLite alter the BIOS? If so how, why? How the hell do I get into the BIOS and override any changes? Any help much appreciated