Need some help with installing Windows XP on my crappy netbook

raksrules

raksrules

Level N
I have this crappy MSI netbook and it does not have a DVD drive as well. I don't have external DVD drive either. I need to install windows XP on this netbook as the current configuration is royally messed up.
It has 3 partitions on it's HDD and it's C: has some old version of XP installed which does not boot and D: has windows 7 in which I can boot into. At the start of the machine, I get 2 options as

Load earlier version of windows (does not work)
Windows 7 ultimate (this works)

Now this netbook was working fine when bought and it had windows xp in it. And I supposedly have all drivers too for XP so I want XP only to be installed.

So assume I have a bootable USB pen drive with windows xp setup, how do I get along with installing xp on this ? I want to sort of format entire HDD and the laptop before the windows XP installed so I remove all junk and earlier version of windows.
I have installed OSes before so I do have fair idea of how to go about it.
Also I want to ensure that after everything is installed fine, I don't want the laptop to ask me what version of windows to load as I expect only single version to be available. I shall take a backup of the required stuff before proceeding with this installation.
 
Has been some time since I installed XP, but if I remember right, you can install this right out of the hard disk too. You would need to copy the contents of the XP CD into your hard drive and run setup from there. It copies all the required files, and then reboots and takes care of itself.
 
agantuk said:
Has been some time since I installed XP, but if I remember right, you can install this right out of the hard disk too. You would need to copy the contents of the XP CD into your hard drive and run setup from there. It copies all the required files, and then reboots and takes care of itself.
Click to expand...
I can copy the installation to hard disk but then will windows 7 allow me to install in this way ? Won't it tell I am trying to install earlier version of windows and it is not Allowed and such things ?
 
From within Windows 7, it is not possible. My mistake I didn't read your first post fully.

In that case, installing from a bootable USB should be no different than installing from a DVD. Are you facing any issue in particular?
 
@raksrules , if I understand correct, I think you want to format the whole hard disk, and install Windows XP fresh on it? And when you say you want to format the whole hard disk, that includes the third partition too?

If yes, all that should be quite an easy process. Just make sure that you backup all your important files and folders, documents, etc. before you start that process... from all the partitions... My Documents from both Windows, and data from the third partition. You have said that you will be taking care of that, so that's good :).

Another important thing, download the drivers for Windows XP from the MSI site for the your model of the notebook, and keep them ready somewhere. That will be needed after you have installed Windows. Make sure to download the drivers for chipset, audio, video and LAN. These are the important ones. These steps for initial preparation are important.

After that, it should be quite easy. When you start the installation process, it will show you that previous Windows are installed on the hard drive, and it will show the different partitions. Since you will have already backup up your data, simply delete those partitions, and then it will be just a single partition for the whole hard drive. So, after that, you can either create partitions as per your choice, or, just format the hard disk as a whole, and just proceed with the installation. You can create new partitions from Windows, after you have completed the installation.
So, this will format the whole hard drive, and whatever data, or whatever versions of Windows were there. Then, Windows XP that you install, will be the only Windows present on it, and so, it won't show up any screen to choose which version of Windows to boot.

I hope this helps :)
 
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@CapriAnupam

Yes that is exactly what i need to do. I am even ok with not deleting the partitions but yes i need to format them for sure, entirely. Will be taking backup of all essential stuff before i proceed.

So if i have the entire win xp installations with me, what would be the easiest way to create a Win XP bootable USB pen drive ?
 
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Raksrules
i would recommend you use Rufus to create a Boot USB with the Windows XP.iso
after that is done , just boot your Laptop with the USB inserted and choose USB HDD in the BIOS as 1st boot priority.
delete all your existing partitions and create new ones acc to your specifications.

p.s.
since win XP is terribly outdated, may i recommend you Puppy Linux?
here is a link of a Puppy Derivative LXPUP
it should be much faster and responsive than WinXP because it loads entirely into the system Memory.
try it and see ;)
I even have a link for a Custom stripped Windows 7 .iso (700 MB) that uses just 250 MB RAM on idle
you won't even notice the stripped features. i am using this stripped win7 on my 7 year old Laptop which has 512MB RAM and 2 GHz Celeron 550m.
 
@Mechanic

Would this Rufus tool also create USB bootable from set of installation files ? As i do not have a .ISO file but rather all the folders available usually in the setup disc.

I am not into Linux and all so not needed. Also Win XP might be outdated but if it works for me, i am ok with the OS. I am not someone who wants latest always.
Windows 7 might not be a good bet since i was unable to find all drivers for this particular netbook for windows 7, so don't want something not working in it.
 
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What were the drivers that weren't working with Win 7 previously? I have installed 7 Ultimate on a 3+ year old Samsung netbook (previously was on Win XP Prof.) and the OS recognised most of the onboard hardware without the need for installing drivers including the WLAN. I recall the touchpad's scrolling did not work and I had to install Synaptics' driver from Synaptics' website. But everything else worked fine.

Replaced the 1 GB DDR 2 RAM with a stick of 2 GB RAM, disabled the Aero features and the netbook is a lot more zippier. As such, my primary usage is just for downloads so it works flawlessly as far as downloading is concerned.
 
@Mechanic

Can you PM me the link of stipped down Win 7. 700 MB sounds good. I can give it a try again. If nothing works i can always try XP Again.
 
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Format the HDD, download a copy of XP from the net, and use that.

If you need to make the ISO bootable, use nlite and strip away unwanted stuff if needed and boot it then.

Else, if you dont plan to do that either of above, then make a bootable DOS pen drive and copy the XP files to the drive. Start the winnt.exe program after booting. Its in the i386 folder.

I prefer installing the full system, then resorting to stopping unwanted services and finally, removing/disabling unwanted features.
 
@raksrules , I thought you already knew how to create a bootable USB drive for Windows XP :D ..

Anyways, one procedure that I found is to create using WinToFlash : http://wintoflash.com/overview/en/

Procedure is given here in detail:

http://www.techtipsgeek.com/install-windows-from-usb-flash-pen-drive/559/

If you like Windows 7, you can give it a try too. What were the drivers that were not working in Windows 7? Had you checked on the MSI site for your notebook model, to see if they were offering drivers for Windows 7? If not, you should check. You can also provide the notebook model here, and we can check too.

Generally Windows 7 shouldn't have problem with the drivers, and sometimes, it will find the drivers or driver updates by itself too. If your notebook can handle Windows 7, and if you like it, I will advise to go with it.. it runs pretty light. Although if you want to go for Windows XP, then that is good too :).. XP still rocks.

Well, it would be good to delete the partitions and install XP from scratch according to your choice. But, if you do not want to delete the partitions, you can just format them from within Windows too... from Disk Management option in Control Panel.
 
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Hehe, that's true :D ...

And if you know any different method, please do share here, it will help others too, and will also help us increase our knowledge. Atleast, I only know about the method I shared, and that too I had looked up from Google :).
 
Mechanic said:
Raksrules
i would recommend you use Rufus to create a Boot USB with the Windows XP.iso
after that is done , just boot your Laptop with the USB inserted and choose USB HDD in the BIOS as 1st boot priority.
delete all your existing partitions and create new ones acc to your specifications.

p.s.
since win XP is terribly outdated, may i recommend you Puppy Linux?
here is a link of a Puppy Derivative LXPUP
it should be much faster and responsive than WinXP because it loads entirely into the system Memory.
try it and see ;)
I even have a link for a Custom stripped Windows 7 .iso (700 MB) that uses just 250 MB RAM on idle
you won't even notice the stripped features. i am using this stripped win7 on my 7 year old Laptop which has 512MB RAM and 2 GHz Celeron 550m.
Click to expand...

I would need that stripped down version of that windows 7 if you can PM me the link.

Also I tried installing windows XP and when I boot from USB drive and select the GUI setup, I get Hal.dll not found error. I have no idea how to resolve this.
 
i have
raksrules said:
I would need that stripped down version of that windows 7 if you can PM me the link.

Also I tried installing windows XP and when I boot from USB drive and select the GUI setup, I get Hal.dll not found error. I have no idea how to resolve this.
Click to expand...
i dled the iso on my HDD from demonoid, but then suddenly Demonoid closed down
i am gonna try and find the link online and get back to you.
hopefully some cyberlocker still has it.
 
raksrules said:
I would need that stripped down version of that windows 7 if you can PM me the link.

Also I tried installing windows XP and when I boot from USB drive and select the GUI setup, I get Hal.dll not found error. I have no idea how to resolve this.
Click to expand...

Don't look for weird stripped down versions of Windows 7. You never know what is in them.

Get the official Windows 7 ISO. It is very scalable and anything that makes your netbook slow can be turned off after the install. (A few Windows services, but mainly Aero).

Use MS's official USB installer tool.
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

Use that to create a bootable USB. Set boot priority in your netbook's bios to USB.

zP1ikv7.jpg


During installation, if multiple partitions are shown, hit delete to create just one row of unallocated space.

Go ahead and follow the prompts to install Windows 7.
 
Ok so yesterday night i started to install XP and select the first option of "Text mode" and i managed to delete the partitions i did not want. Then it started to copy all the files from USB to HDD i suppose but the coping was too slow, may be USB is also slow i guess. Like 1% per minute.
And mid way the netbook shutdown probably because of heat. Will try again today evening immediately after going home, not sure how i will avoid it getting heated, tried lot of things.
 
Before doing all these, I'd advise you to open up the netbook and clean its innards. If it has never been serviced during its lifetime, then it is high time you give it a shot before attempting OS reinstallations among other things.

Dust would have accumulated inside and would have clogged the heatsink and the vent. outlets which results in the overheating. The thermal paste might have dried up as well. Try opening the netbook and see for yourself.
 
@Gannu

Yeah good suggestion. Will do that first if i am able too. Need to put my Jackly tool kit to use. It gets very hot, almost untouchable.
 
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