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Asked: 2021-12-01T08:27:05+00:00 In:

Install Windows XP On Compaq Presario CQ42

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Hi,

How to install windows XP on compaq presario CQ42 -103TU. it has windows 7 on it , but i wana change to XP. when i put the windows XP CD inside, it gives an compatibility issue error.
pls advise ,,,

thanks

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    4 Answers

    1. Reza12, you’re trying to install 2 OSs on the same partition. They don’t play well together. See if you can designate a new partition (dunno if you can & retain 7) and put XP on it?
      HTH.
      Ed in Texas.

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    2. First – before you go down that road… ensure you can locate/secure “all” drivers etc. for the system – when running XP…; otherwise you may end wasting your time and efforts as you set about installing XP.
      Go to website the Compaq; search out the model you have (likely support\downloads area is a place to go). If all drivers for XP are there – dowload and burn them to cd.

      Then decided – do you wish to have a dual-boot or simply XP alone.

      Post back with what yoiu want to end up with; and if you have managed to secure all drivers for XP.

      Then folks can/will help you further… (most of it is on the www in detail).

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    3. The HP site is harder than some to find the drivers but here are the XP drivers for the system. They have XP, Vista, Win 7 and even Win 2000.

      Rich

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    4. As XP drivers are available… if you want a dual-boot then this site details how to do it; read it carefully!

      http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind…

      Youtube video re’ removing Vista and installing XP…

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EufV…

      In essence you boot with the XP CD – and just reformat the Vista partition… You could delete the partition first, then when you recreate one make it smaller size than the whole dirve – say 1015Gig or so; balance of drive can be configured/formatted as Extended partition/logical-drive – for data only. CD has to be set as first boot-device in bios for the above.

      You will also need a disk with all XP drivers included; and it’s probably possible to slipstream sed drivers into the a copy of your XP disk; so as to automate driver installation? Likely the HD in question is SATA – so you will definitely need to have drivers for XP-SATA to hand – they go in very early in setup sequence…; and you can either slipstream them into a copy of tthe disk, or provide them separately when prompted (early setup) for drivers for the storage device?

      However…. if the drive has a hidden/recovery partition on it (and likely it doth…?) then my understanding is that it’s a bit more complicated… You need to determine if there is such a partition on the drive…

      If you can acces the boot.ini and post it here likely that will tell us what partitioning is at present. If there is a hidden/recovery partition present then the OS will be in partition-2 – not partition-1; and this will be shown in the boot.in info (in the ARC statement).

      The other way to see what’s on the drive (partitioning info) is via Vista’s drive management utility (or whatever it’s called in Vista)? Again it will show if there is a small hidden partitoin – ahead of the designated/labeled c: partition.

      Why do you want to go back to Vista? I ask more out of academic interest etc. as I have no flags to wave for the now deceased (or almost) Vista; I prefer XP…

      I should point out that I I haven’t ever had to remove Vista etc. and replace it with XP; so my suggestions/advice are partly based on input here (from others), and a degree of trawling/research over the last two years or so to same end… All just in-case I had to go that remove Vista path etc.. Many opt to go dual-boot in the end… as it is apparetnly easier?

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