Before you upgrade, be sure to backup all data you want to another computer or secondary hard drive - My Documents, any files on the Desktop, Internet Favourites, or emails if you use Outlook / Outlook Express etc.
Another thing - do you have the drivers you need for your laptop? Do not install a new operating system if you do not have the driver CD for your laptop to install afterwards. The driver CD will include software for your display, sound, touchpad, pci-express cards, etc.
Once you are sure you are ready, insert the XP CD into the CD drive before you restart the computer.
Cancel any on-screen prompts you receive from the autoplay.
Restart the laptop.
Press ENTER to resume booting from the XP CD. (BIOS must support booting from CD and boot order must be set so CD boots before hard drive - should be default anyway)
A blue screen will appear and will install preliminary data. If you need to install RAID drivers press F6, otherwise just wait.
Another prompt will appear - press F8 if you agree to the license. Setup will scan for previous operating systems. You want to, first of all, delete the partition that Vista is on.
You will need to follow the on-screen prompts at this stage. All the info you need on how to do this is there.
(use the up/down keys to select)
Once the partition is deleted, you will need to create a new one, onto which you will install XP.
Press enter to install on the empty partition. It will ask you to format the disk. It is recommended that you do not choose the "quick NTFS" format - go for the full format.
No comments:
Post a Comment