Icewall

Thanks for the pointer, but maybe it really isn't worth it? I don't think newer is always better either. It's usually not. My laptop is just for personal use. I'm not going to have it in a LAN or business. I have no idea if my hard drive supports NCQ.

Nope, SP2. Don't ask me why I haven't upgraded to SP3 yet. Maybe I'll do that sometime. I just want to know if the above is possible. So far I have tested that I can load the Windows installation fine without BSOD.

I've been struggling to find out what to do with the issue of getting my Win XP installed on my Inspiron 1545 laptop. Instead of going through the long painful process wasting discs to make a working slipstream CD, because following step by step instructions are never enough, I was wondering if I could do this instead: 1. Switch SATA operation in BIOS to ATA (I can switch between Disable, ATA or AHCI). 2. Start up with Win XP disc, format hard drive and install the op. 3. Inside Windows install AHCI driver. 4. Reboot and change settings in BIOS to AHCI and reboot. Woalah! Just like that! :-D