HP Laptop

boseytal

I'm just wondering does anyone have an XP recovery CD for a pavilion dv6500 (or know where to get one)...

The laptop I'm working on has Vista, and i've tried to downgrade numerous ways, but something always happens... first XP setup wouldn't recognise the hard drive, then it said it couldn't install onto a partition with an existing OS on it (even tho I did a complete format of the hard disk!!)

Anyone any suggestions please....

dr.bollocko

Ahaha
This is the problem I have had mate.
I got it working.
First thing is though, that I was able to get XP installed before worrying about finding the drivers, the drivers can be mucky depending on the laptop, because HP does not provide drivers for XP on its DV series if it is shipped with Vista.

So. At the moment where are you at?
Did you delete all of the partitions and do a full format?
Can you get the XP install running?
This is the basic stuff. It gets really fun trying to get the drivers to work.
Are you going with XP home? Is that an XP SP2 disk or SP1 disk?

dr.bollocko

If you did the full format it should take about 20 mins. Then you should be left with a nice big chunk of unpartitioned space to install XP onto.

Col_Loki

Installing XP on those HP Pavilion's can be a total nightmare.

The problem you are having is that XP does not have your SATA on the default CD.....and your laptop does not have a floppy drive to load the driver.
The way of getting around this is to create an XP image with the Driver Pre-Loaded (needs a software package to do this).

After you have XP loaded you will have a B**ch of a job finding the correct drivers for the laptop......it will break your heart (if its not already broken from the step above).

Will see if i can find the instructions but be prepared to spend a couple of days at this.

Col_Loki

Have a look at these links for the XP Problem....
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00758841&dlc=en&product=3555475

Here is the link i used...
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/resolving-setup-did-not-find-any-hard-disk-drives-during-windows-xp-installation/


Good luck mate.

boseytal

Ok, i have a version of XP Pro SP2 with SATA drivers.... I'm getting to the stage in XP setup when you press enter to install on unpartitioned space. Next screen says 'Cannot detect Hard Drive' blah blah... Really annoying at this stage.


So I ran the Vista recovery, and it was up and going in no time. Booted up in DOS mode, did a full lormat, debug, f-disk, the works....

Take 2 at the install: I get to the same stage, same story.

Now the HDD is SATA, and my XP disk has SATA drivers pre-installed. I was using a normal XP SP2, and i thought this may have been the problem (ie. There was a driver for the HDD that I deleted during format)....

I am at a loss.

boseytal

dr.bollocko wrote: »

If you did the full format it should take about 20 mins. Then you should be left with a nice big chunk of unpartitioned space to install XP onto.

I get what ur saying, i thought myself it should be that straight forward, but it ain't... the above 'how-to-geek' link explains it very well, I'm going to try it this way and i'll get back to ye.... Cheers for the post. Fingers crossed!

Col_Loki

the above 'how-to-geek' link explains it very well, I'm going to try it this way and i'll get back to ye.... Cheers for the post. Fingers crossed!
Today 17:49

A normal XP SP2 CD will not work unless you have created another one with the specific HP SATA driver on it like the How-to-geek describes.

By the way i have had to install XP on Vista HP Pavilions about ~10 times, not much fun even after you get the OS Installed. I have since changed jobs so dont have the "HP Ready" XP disc.

boseytal

Yep, the 'how-to-geek' links is excellent. Walked me thru the process step by step, and got it sorted. Cheers Col.

gamer

download drivermax ,export all drivers to my drivers folder and a cdrom.if your hd crashes ,at least you have all the laptop drivers.And it makes it real easy when you need to install another os,or reinstall winxp on your,pc or laptop.

Col_Loki

Yep, the 'how-to-geek' links is excellent. Walked me thru the process step by step, and got it sorted. Cheers Col.

Glad i could help. Give me a shout when you have a problem with the Audio Driver