[vincecr]

Help please. Bought Dell inspiron laptop with vista pre-installed. Hate Vista, want xp back. Rather than corrupt or spoil the vista pre-installed disk, I decided to buy new hdd on which to install xp. Bought exactly the same new hdd and changed disk no problem. But get no response when I insert my XP pro windows disk. so unable to format drive ready to install xp. I have xp sata drivers etc but I get message saying" no bootable devices found"

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go into your bio's change ACHI to read as IDE.
Run install disc.
Format drive.

Install windows XP.
Benefit.

83

XP doesn't have basic ACHI support so it doesn't respond to it.
So it needs to be read as IDE.
Same problem with my laptop.

83
Enjoy.

[TheWhiteRose000]

go into your bio's change ACHI to read as IDE.
Run install disc.
Format drive.

Install windows XP.
Benefit.

83

XP doesn't have basic ACHI support so it doesn't respond to it.
So it needs to be read as IDE.
Same problem with my laptop.

83
Enjoy.

[rshaffer61]

XP needs no SATA drivers but Vista will.
Did you change the boot sequence in the BIOS so that the Cdrom was the first boot device?
If not that is why you are getting the message you are.
The system is trying to boot to a hd that is not usable yet.

To change Boot Sequence in your BIOS
Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the DEL button
This will enter you into the Bios\Cmos area.
Find the Advanced area and click Enter
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter
Now highlight the first drive and follow the directions on the bottom of the screen on how to modify it and change it to CDrom.
Change the second drive to the C or Main Drive
Once that is done then click F10 to Save and Exit
You will prompted to enter Y to verify Save and Exit. Click Y and the system will now reboot with the new settings.

Hopefully you have already put the XP cd in the drive before all this. If everything is setup correctly you will get a black screen with the following message in the upper left corner:
"Push Any Key To Boot To Cd". When you see this then push any key and the cd will take over. Then follow the prompts or if you need assistance we will help.

[vincecr]

Thank you everyone for your help and suggestions. I will try what you say and then post the results or come back for some more help. Vincecr