I would like to get rid of Vista on this computer and install WinXP. I have the XP upgrade but unfortunately it will not work with Vista. I have two older computers with XP and I have a USB Transfer cable, which is awesome to use but, using it with a Vista and XP computers you can only transfer from Vista to XP but not back to Vista. I later learned that the only way to downgrade to XP is to have the Full version. Unfortunately I can not find it locally. I did see one thread here that suggested "Dirt Cheap Software" and the retail version is no longer available there. Am I on the right track here? I do NOT want a dual boot, only get rid of Vista and have XP to be able to work back and forth with the other 2 computers.

Also, one more question, many times I am not allowed to save programs as it say's I do not have Admin rights do I want to install it to "Rich files" (my name). That's the way to do it. How do I get Admin rights? I am the only one that has ever used this computer.

Thank you, Rich (Homeinspec)

Firstly you cannot downgrade Vista to XP.
Secondly if you do install XP the computer was built for Vista you may have problems with hard ware not working due to lack of drivers to download.

You should check your computer manufacturers website and see if XP drivers are available for this computer.

Files can be transfered between Vista/XP back and forth.This could be the problem of workgroups.
XP needs to have its work group changed to the same as Vista.XP is usaly set at basic MSHOME.
Vista is set to WORKGROUP.

The admin rights:Try this:

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
In Control Panel, click User Accounts.
In the User Accounts window, click User Accounts.
In the User Accounts tasks window, click Turn User Account Control on or off.
If UAC is currently configured in Admin Approval Mode, the User Account Control message appears. Click Continue.

Do one of the following:
To disable UAC, clear the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer check box.
To enable UAC, select the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer check box.

Click OK.

__________________
It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/Home/
http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

PCHF Rules Scan Computer for Driver Updates Pre-Work

If you give me make and model of your computer then I will look into wether it can take XP and see if the drivers are available for you?

You may have to set permissions on files and folders in Vista.

Thankyou.

__________________
It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/Home/
http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

PCHF Rules Scan Computer for Driver Updates Pre-Work

Thank you JellyBean -

it is a HP pavilion, mod# a6130n , AMD athlon 64 x 2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ , Vista home premium , 3072MB system memory , 400 Gig hard drive ,

I did read something a while back that it can be done but just need to make sure of the drivers as you pointed out. Also I do have 2 hard drives from older XP computers -

one is - a "Maxtor" N256, model # 96147H6,

The other is - a "Seagate" barracuda ATA IV 80 Gig bytes, Mod# ST380021A

is there any way these could be put into the computer in place of the one in there now OR as a master and what about the one in there now? can files be moved back and forth that way? What about a new hard drive with more gig bytes than these?

The transfer cable I have plugs into the USB ports of each computer and it is supposed to bring up a split screen with both computer files and etc shown which I can then drag and drop OR copy and paste files from one to the other where ever I want them. Works great with the two XP computers but only works transfering files from the Vista computer to the XP but not XP to Vista. Does this make sense?

Thank you, hope i gave you enough info.

Rich

The HP site just has Vista driver for that machine. Can you download everest |MG| EVEREST Free Edition 2.20 install and run it and get your motherboard model number. With that we can then direct to the Motherboard site and get drivers from there.Depending on your motherboard will determine what you can install or not

Hello Rich.
I would follow zingles advice and we can then find XP drivers to download.

I would keep your main had drive as the 400 gig.You can fit the other hard drives as slaves as long as there is enough SATA/IDE ports on the mainboard.You should then be able to access the files on these drives.

Buying or fitting a new main hard drive would result in having to reinstall Vista.

You could buy a larger hard drive and fit as an internal slave you have enough SATA ports on your mainboard to fit a slave drive.
However if your computer needs this extra space for a lot of files then yes buy a new drive.If you do not have a lot of files to store then you would not need this extra drive.
Although external drives are portable and can transfer files this way and no need to open up your computer.But they can be expencive.

Or you can buy IDE/SATA external cases to convert internal hard drives to external USB.Or cheaper option is just buy the leads to convert internal to external if they are not going to be used permanently as external.

I am looking into the problem of transfering the file problems.

Have you set up sharing of these files on XP?

Do you get any error codes?

This could help with Vista.File and Printer Sharing in Windows Vista

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP

__________________
It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/Home/
http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

PCHF Rules Scan Computer for Driver Updates Pre-Work

I seriously would not trust usb as an external storage method the amount of times they just fail is crazy

Jelly Bean - sorry it took so long to get the information as it is very confussing for me. the following is how and what is on one of 2 tags,,

TAG #1,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
(MCP61PM-HM)
HPP/N 5188-8535
V0611F71800108
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

TAG#2,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
MCP61PM-HM (SFIS S/N)
V0611100F74T0B49
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

the Zero (0) could be the letter O, was very hard for me to distinguish with the eye surgery I just completed. Sorry for the confussion and delays.

I also down loaded and installed the "EVEREST Free Edition 2.20"

By the way this is what came up for the mother board when I went to the EVEREST,,,,,

Field Value Motherboard ID 04/04/2007-MCP61P-6A61KE11C-00


so now I am back at your Mercy ,,

Hi there are some XP drivers for your board:

Gateway Support Drivers & Downloads

Gosh eye surgery I hope it all went well for you?

__________________
It is all in the hardware..........................................
Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/en/gb/default.aspx
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/Home/
http://www.petri.co.il/index.htm

PCHF Rules Scan Computer for Driver Updates Pre-Work

Hi there again, Sorry for not responding sooner,, after going to the gateway site I got confussed as what or how to download what I needed, also don't I have to have the full version (Retail) of XP before downloading any drivers?

I went back an re-read this thread and noticed that I had overlooked one thing you said about being able to share files back and forth from Vista and XP. This is what I really wanted to do and didn't know it could be done between the two different systems. I remembered how to go in and change XP to the WORKGROUP name but, I can't remember nbow how to use the sharing thing. (sounds silly but I have not been too sharp lately with the med. problems) so please forgive me for this. So can I use the "Tansfer Cable" to do this since they are both in the "workgroup" status?

I will try and see what happens,,,,,