Downgrade Win 10 to XP

[Mafiatounes]

• Hello all,

I just bought a 8200 Elite CMT an i7 2600, 4gb, 250gb ssd will replace the now main 500gb hdd with Wi10 pro this was upgraded by previous owner from 7 Pro. 

I bought this mainly as a retro project and wanted to install Windows XP on this pc (i have pc's with almost all OS versions of Windows). I have a couple of XP cd's from HP (a pre load XP disc and the main OS) i tried the following things to install XP yet to no good result.

In W10 went to recovery and advanced i could load up only the pre load disc and it seems to install XP yet it stops on a cmd screen and does not proceed..

The same with the main OS disc it ask me to use the recovery plus cd which i do not have.

Is there something i am missing? Please help

Ps: I am aware of what it consists to have a unsupported OS like mentioned this is a retro project pc for gaming no internet connection or unsafe files will be used.

[Prométhée]

hi

"[edit]

I have a couple of XP cd's from HP (a pre load XP disc and the main OS) i tried the following things to install XP yet to no good result.

In W10 went to recovery and advanced i could load up only the pre load disc and it seems to install XP yet it stops on a cmd screen and does not proceed.."

If you want to install xp, which may not be possible.. ⬆️
you need an installation cd, with a valid license key, you cannot generally use a recovery cd, from another computer
I advise you not to touch the disk with the supported windows version!
You say replace the hdd, possibly windows 10 on the SSD, disconnect it, and try to install xp on the HDD
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-compaq-8200-elite-convertible-minitower-pc/50379...

you have drivers  here, it must not be impossible

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Mafiatounes 

I have an 8200 Elite CMT, and I have run every operating system on it from XP to Windows 11, and it works great on every one of them.

Sounds to me you need to:

Make sure you boot your installation media from one of the legacy boot sources...DVD drive or USB flash drive.

You need to install the SATA controller driver if the drive controller setting is on the preferred AHCI mode.

There are a few ways to do this...

1.  Use a USB floppy disk drive and install the drivers from a floppy by using the F6 prompt at beginning of the installation and select the exact storage controller driver you need from the list of drivers on the floppy.

2.  Slipstream the storage controller drivers to a copy of your XP installation media.  I have attached the instructions to do that below.

3.  Change the storage controller setting in the BIOS from AHCI to IDE, install Windows XP and then change the storage controller setting back to AHCI after you manually change the storage controller driver in the device manager.

I can help you with either 1 or 3 by providing the right drivers you need.

[Mafiatounes]

Thanks,

Option 2 did it, i had to burn a new iso with XP and the SATA AHCI driver it worked as intended.

The other options did not work out, i do not have a floppy drive, also the IDE option blocked during install.

[Mafiatounes]

Thanks for helping, finally managed to have it working the SATA AHCI driver was missing.

Fyi the ssd was brand new.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.