Unable to remove Vista and install XP

[morland]

Hi,

I have bought a Sony VAIO FZ140E which came with Vista. I was not expecting to face any problems and I inserted my genuine XP CD in the DVD drive and started the system.... Everything appeared to be working as it does when you are installing XP on a new machine UNTIL i got a windows which basically said that no internal drives can be found... and press F3 to exit.

Am I now stuck with Vista? I don't want it, hate it, and want XP on my Laptop. Can someone please help.

Thanks.

[nitroshift]

Before moving on to the next step towards installing XP on your laptop, have you checked whether there are any XP drivers available?

Edited August 2, 2007 by nitroshift

[JuMz]

You probably need the F6 AHCI Floppy driver for either Intel 945 or Intel 965 chipset...Those are available on Intel's site for all Os's...but I do not believe Sony has XP Drivers for the laptop itself...

[morland]

Well I have downoad all the drivers from Sony's site and an ASSUMING that they will work with XP???

JuMz: Can you help me get the F6 AHCI Floppy driver for either Intel 945 or Intel 965 chipset (whatever that is)

[JuMz]

The drivers from Intel for your Chipset (Intel 965GM) are here:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_res...mp;submit=Go%21

You will need to download this:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/confirm.as...e=〈=eng

Extract it, have a floppy ready, and follow the instructions...

When you shove in the Windows CD to install, right away, on the bottom, it will say 'Press F6 blah blah' , PRESS F6. It will then ask you to insert the floppy. After that, scroll through the list of Drivers until you find ICH8 something with AHCI then hit enter and load it. Then continue with the rest of setup (leave the disk in the drive until the blue setup screen reboots)

[nitroshift]

Once again, let me warn you about driver compatibility. Downloading the latest drivers off the manufacturer's site does NOT mean that they were written for Windows XP and / or they will work under XP. That outta way, good luck with your install!

[morland]

Hi Jumz and nitroshift,

JuMz: Thank you for the url's... i'll visit them and give it a try.

I'm already really upset and dishearted and this has double by learning that the drivers might not work with XP (if I am ever able to get XP up and running on the laptop).

I'll post back if I get everything working as desired Till then, do wish me luck and kindly share if you come across something useful and related to the subject of this thread.

Regards.

[morland]

The drivers from Intel for your Chipset (Intel 965GM) are here:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_res...mp;submit=Go%21

You will need to download this:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/confirm.as...e=〈=eng

Extract it, have a floppy ready, and follow the instructions...

When you shove in the Windows CD to install, right away, on the bottom, it will say 'Press F6 blah blah' , PRESS F6. It will then ask you to insert the floppy. After that, scroll through the list of Drivers until you find ICH8 something with AHCI then hit enter and load it. Then continue with the rest of setup (leave the disk in the drive until the blue setup screen reboots)

Thank you for the URL's JuMz. But I do not have an external floppy. Would a USB/Flash Disk somehow??? work. If so, how?

Regards.

[JuMz]

Then you will have to use nLite to integrate the drivers onto the XP CD and burn another copy of that CD...

[morland]

Then you will have to use nLite to integrate the drivers onto the XP CD and burn another copy of that CD...

Hi JuMz,

Can I use Nero to do this burning OR is nLite the only solution??? Can you kindly share a URL from where I can download nLite.

Thanks.

[JuMz]

Well the process works like this:

You copy your entire XP CD to your hard drive (C:\XP)

Then you download and install nLite, and tell nLite to look for your XP install on C:\XP

Then there is an option to integrate drivers, where you can select an INF and integrate the driver for support in 'text mode'

Then you need to add the driver for GUI mode for PNP detection.

Once that is done, you will need to burn the disc. I believe you can use nLite to do this...Nero can also be used but it is a little tricky (you need to burn a bootable CD using Microsoft's Bootloader...)

nLite can be found on MSFN. If you google around, you will be able to find guides on how to get this done...I believe I have given you enough terms to google for...

[LeveL]

You could just integrate the MassStorage Driverpack from here:

http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/

No hunting for anything needed then. Its childs play.

Grab the BASE and the MassStorage Driverpack + any other driverpacks you

want to put in, bearing in mind it will go beyond 700Mb if you choose all drivers.

How do you remake the ISO... lol I can't be assed explaining Just run it through

nLite but I have had bad experiences with nlite AFTER Bashrats driverpacks, not to

knock either thing, its just that nLite can bugger up your source if you go doing stuff

to it after integrating Bashrats drivers.

The proper way is put boot.bin on the root of the CD/DVD and use CDIMAGE.EXE

on the command line but thats for "Microsoft internal use only" so - as per usual

Microsoft is literally killing our scope of understanding in the name of being greedy.

Use CDIMAGE.EXE but remember that its illegal, sigh...

[morland]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your help.. Well I'll give your suggestions a try and wil post back in a few days.

Thanks for your help

[Guest kdjf39]

I too had the same problem installing XP Pro on FZ140E.

Followed advices from this thread and a couple of other places, here's my summary of the solution -

* Make sure you have XP Pro installation CD (i.e. not just \I386 folder)

* Download and install nLite, which a tool that can create customized, bootable XP installation CDs

nLite is amazingly well-done even for a commercial grade software, but it is a freeware.

Mega-props to its author.

* Download Intel® Matrix Storage Manager using either the link in one of the above posts or

this one if installing XP Pro x86.

* Run Intel's package, but don't go beyond first wizard's screen. Keep it running, put in a background.

* Start nLite, go through initial screens, import XP CD, add SP and hotfixes if desired, then add drivers.

When importing drivers, point nLite at C:\WINDOWS\Temp\IIF\Winall\Driver\, that's where Intel's installer

is keeping its extracted drivers. Select all drivers from the list that nLite displays.

* Complete nLite process and burn the CD. Close Intel's installer.

Done. Take CD, stick into Vaio and the setup should now be able to see the HD.

--- But I absolutely positively must add that I am d@mn p*ssed at Sony.

Two days of effort just to get the laptop up and running. F*cking Vista. ---