I've got to ask: how exactly does your new laptop expressly prevent you from installing XP on it? The only explanation I've been able to come up with is that you only had a recovery disk from an old computer instead of a real install CD...
This new laptop does not come with ATA100 drives anymore, but with SATA drives. This should not be a problem, if the XP setup disks had any SATA drivers included. Now the XP cd just boots, and when the menu comes up where the disks can be partitioned, I get an error message saying there are no harddisk inside this computer.
Usually this problem can be overcome by setting a compatibility mode in the bios (this is always the case with any normal desktop motherboard I've known so far), but the bios of this laptop is *so* limited, basically anything more than setting the boot order and/or an administrative password is not possible.
I think I'll try a difference approach though: I'll remove one of the disks from the laptop, connect it to a desktop pc and setup XP until the first reboot from there. Then I'll try putting the HD back in the laptop, and hopefully it'll boot then an continue the installation process.
I'm sure I'll stumble onto other problems as I go along then (like finding the adequate drivers for all the components... HP does not supply them anymore for XP, can you believe that?)
I have two problems with Vista (not on my machine, I'm still on XP MCE):
- poor driver support: my mother-in-law's computer is always blue-screening and I can't tell why. There's no heat problems, the memory tests fine, everything looks in order, but it blue-screens alot.
Strange... most likely a driver conflict, but I know it's pretty hard to find out which one...
- networking: I can't STAND the new networking area of the control panel. It's infuriating!
Tell me about it! I think it's absolutely incredible Microsoft managed to release a product which seems almost incompatible with its own previous software. I mean, even simple things like the Workgroup name have been named differently. This is not so much of a problem, but I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who have cussed a lot because they didn't notice this at first. Why change this???
I'm sure there's more, but I've not installed it on my own machine...
My advice: DON'T! I sure won't! The absolute worst part is that it's a resource hog. I mean, this is a 2.5 Ghz dual core with 3GB of RAM laptop, and it runs sloooooooow! Come on! With that kind of processing power, performance should be through the roof! But it feels like all I've been doing while (trying to) install(ing) it is looking at an hour glass and waiting. It's absolutely maddening! Have you already tried to install SP1 onto a Vista machine ? If now, you're in for a lot of fun: how about an HOUR and a HALF just to do that?!
They said Windows ME was the worst Microsoft ever released? My money's on Vista: a lot of bloat, no added functionality compared to XP and slow as hell. Add the fact that a lot of 'older' programs (_and_ hardware because of the lack of updated drivers - hey, buy the new version!
) have troubles running on it and you've got an instant recipe for disaster.
This OS will never run on my PC. It's just too much frustration and no added value all bottled up in one product. There's just nothing to gain!
Just like with Microsoft ME a couple of years ago, I'll sit it out and see what Windows 7 will be like.
Now, to get XP running on this laptop...
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