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Downgrade Guide for Dell Inspiron from Windows Vista to XP

January 13th, 2009


So you got a brand new laptop from Dell, or to be exact an Inspiron 1420?

It comes with Windows Vista and you have no option to select Windows XP?

But you are so desperate to use XP for the following reasons?

  1. Loyal to Windows XP
  2. Your important programs doesn’t run on Vista
  3. You’re sick with Vista’s questions asking if you’re really really sure on the actions you’re going to take
  4. You just want XP

Recently I got to find out how to downgrade the notebook operating system from Windows Vista to Windows XP. This task, after many hours of trial and error only I finally had my trial and success.

These are my trials and errors:

  1. Put in WIndows XP installation cd and try to setup, BUT, it says it couldn’t detect the hard disk and make sure it is active
  2. Format the disk and making sure the disk is OK using the Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management
  3. Tried to format the hard disk with another computer, BUT, it still says unable to detect the hard disk!

Finally, this is how I did it:

  1. When you startup your laptop, press F12 to go to the boot menu
  2. Select BIOS Setup
  3. Go to Onboard Devices -> SATA Operation
  4. Change the default AHC1 to ATA
  5. You might be prompted to turn off the Flash Cache Module, if you do, set it off at Onboard Devices -> Flash Cache Module
  6. Save settings, and restart
  7. F12 to go into your boot menu and select CD-ROM/DVD-ROM with your WIndows XP installation CD
  8. Good luck!

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Good To Know, Hardware, Technology

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    1. January 14th, 2009 at 19:43 | #1

      Good info but there’s a sata xp and bootable some more, u dont have to change anything. Hehehe…

    2. January 15th, 2009 at 01:01 | #2

      Hi Marvin. Mind exchanging links? 🙂

    3. January 18th, 2009 at 15:38 | #3

      put my name ‘Steven’ is fine (: reciprocated.

    4. eddy
      January 18th, 2009 at 16:07 | #4

      what is the reason behind?

    5. January 18th, 2009 at 16:22 | #5

      @eddy
      You mean the downgrade? Some programs can’t run, needed WinXP

    6. eddy
      January 18th, 2009 at 16:56 | #6

      no, i mean why change the default AHC1 to ATA???

    7. January 18th, 2009 at 17:00 | #7

      @eddy
      Unfortunately, I have no answer for that…

    8. Matt
      May 4th, 2010 at 21:28 | #8

      @marvin
      AHC1 is Serial ATA (SATA) for the hard drive. The Windows XP disk doesn’t have drivers built in to recognize a SATA drive. When you switch to ATA, you are slowing the performance of the drive by running it as an IDE. You can create a new XP install CD with SATA drivers by having an original XP install CD, and Google “SATA drivers on XP CD”.

    9. May 5th, 2010 at 05:57 | #9

      @Matt
      that’s a great tip.
      Thanks Matt!

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