[schnide]

Hi, I just recently bought an Acer Aspire 5515 notebook, and I would like to downgrade from Vista to XP. Could anyone be kind enough to give me some step-by-step instructions on getting this done?

The notebook comes with two 80GB hard drives, and my current plan is to switch out the hd that currently has Vista on it and replace it with a 320GB hard drive that I just bought. After that I'd like to do the XP installation on the other (currently empty) 80GB hd and use the 320GB drive purely for storage. I am familiar with the program nLite, but I am having trouble with the process because I'm not very experienced with computer tweaking.

Thanks in advance.

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Hi and welcome

Did the laptop come with an XP downgrade CD?

Troy

[Troy]

Hi and welcome

Did the laptop come with an XP downgrade CD?

Troy

[schnide]

Hello, thanks for your reply.

No, the laptop did not come with either an XP or a Vista disc, but I have my own Windows XP installation CD from a older computer.


By the way, the notebook has ONE 160GB harddrive, not two 80GB drives as I said previously. I just realized that it was just one drive with two partitions...oops duh...so now the plan is to just switch that 160GB drive out for a 320GB drive and partition that one. I've already physically switched the two drives in the notebook, but I have absolutely no knowledge about how to deal with the BIOS, and I'm unsure at best about the rest of the process. Thanks.

Edited by schnide, 25 August 2009 - 04:05 PM.

[Troy]

You'll need to enter the BIOS, set it to boot from the CD drive before the hard drive. Then boot up with the XP disc in the CD drive and follow along with the installation.

Once it's completed, you'll then need to set about installing drivers for the hardware. This is where I'm concerned you'll get stuck - if Acer haven't released XP drivers for that model computer, you're stuck. Head on over to the support website and find them first before you do too much more.

Also as another note, if the old XP disc and license is Retail then you are good to go; otherwise if it is OEM you are unable to use it on this computer according to Microsoft OEM licensing law.

Troy