T61: Downgrading to XP from Vista

[puntible]

Hello,

I have had my Thinkpad T61 since late August and I can't say that I am fully happy with the performance of my machine. I occasionally get lock ups and such, and after searching through these forums I found a fix for it, but just recently after installing new drivers, I got an error saying winload.exe cannot be found, corrupt or lost etc. I somehow managed to extract the files from the Rescue and Recovery that Lenovo offers. I would now like to downgrade my T61 to an XP. I am still getting the winload.exe error, but I can still access BIOS. So can you please tell me what I have to do to go through with this, and what I will lose in the process in terms of Thinkpad software.
Thank you.

Also, should I purchase the Windows XP 64 Bit edition or just regular Home.

[puntible]

I just called Lenovo and they cannot send me the downgrade discs because I only have Vista Home Premium. so my question is, can I just purchase Windows XP Pro/Home and install it on the computer and do a full reformat/install and have everything work?
Thank you

[Ballallaz]

It will work... I recommend you download all the drivers beforehand and copy to a USB key so you can install them just after the first Windows XP boot.

However, you will lose all capability to restore from the hidden Lenovo partition.... or re-install your OS with all drivers (if you re-install your machine on a regular schedule, this is going to suck...)

I got the restore DVD for XP on T61 from a eBay seller... do not know if this is legal, but that can be a solution.

Now I have a real XP restore partition and R&R/restore/re-install work no problem.

Ballallaz

[carbon_unit]

Make a set of Vista Recovery discs before you install XP. They may come in handy some day.

[Bajpai]

Also follow the instructions on the Lenovo site (see following link) regarding the XP downgrade.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=VSTA-DWNGRD#downgrad...

They also prompt you to make a image of the existing Vista system, just in case you wish to revert back after some months.

Rescue and recovery partitions are obviously different for XP and Vista.

Sushil

[abarry]

I just went through the same thing and found this guide really useful:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=188992

I kept the recovery partition intact as I have a CDRW (to avoid shipping delays, ha ha ha) and would need about 10 discs to backup that partition. This way if anything goes wrong I can revert to factory default with less hassle... 

If you don't have the XP discs maybe you know a 'friend from Sweden' who will let you 'borrow' a copy....   

Note from Moderator:  Converted to clickable link.

Message Edited by nonny on 02-14-2008 07:55 AM

[wjli2]

only Vista Business and Ultimate are legally qualified for the downgrade to XP professional, if you are within warranty you could order the XP recovery disks from Lenovo......

[billbolton Community Moderator]

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puntible wrote:

Also, should I purchase the Windows XP 64 Bit edition or just regular Home.

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If you want to run a 64 bit Windows OS, you will be MUCH better off with Vista x64 that XP x64!

Cheers,

Bill

[puntible]

I appreciate everyone for the help, and currently I am in the process of downgrading.

However, on the Windows XP Pro Setup menu, it asked me what partion I wanted to install my XP on. I clicked on the C drive, but I noticed that there was a smaller D drive with about 6GB's of memory. Hopefully I made the right decision?

[andyP Community SuperMod]

You did