HP pavilion dv 4 1125nr startup problem

[ashrogue]

Hi friends.,

I recently got a HP pavilion dv 4 1125nr with factory installed windows vista.

I find vista very uncomfortable to work with as i got used to XP controls. so i tried to install XP using installer CD,. But i soon found out it can't be done with HP laptops.

So i tried to do the system recovery during the startup ( after the attempt to install XP failed ).
But, soon after the recovery was reported to be finished , it said application softwares are being installed and restarted after that.

Since then, the startup proceeds to a command prompt which reads something like

X:\windows\system32\cmd.exe-starnet.cmd
Please wait.....

after that, it restarts again.
This has been happening since 2 days. Is there anyway i can install windows XP with the present seemingly corrupt vista preventing me from running windows.

Please help me in as simple terms as possible, i am a newbie with laptops and vista.

 

[frozenlead]

It looks like whoever designed the recovery program at HP didn't do a very good job - apparently, it's looking for a network drive that doesn't exist anymore. This is not Vista's fault.

There's no reason XP can't be installed on your notebook (though I'd advise against it - Vista is an excellent OS, you just have to adjust), provided you have all the drivers for it. Why couldn't you install XP?

 

[ashrogue]

new HP laptop models need a different hard disk driver it seems. The XP installer cd doesn't have that driver. That driver can be integrated with XP installer cd which itself is not so easy for a newbie . I will tell u if i succeed in doing it.

 

[frozenlead]

It's not an HP issue, it's one with Windows XP. Windows XP was around before the SATA interface was, and it doesn't carry the drivers by default. You don't have to add it to the CD, either...Just go to HP's site and download them, then when Windows XP asks you to "hit f6 to install 3rd party SCSI or RAID driver", just do so and select the driver.

Generally, there's also an option in the BIOS that can emulate the ATA environment for Windows XP and allow it to understand the drive. It's usually called AHCI. Enable it if you can.

 

[osaidkhh]

Can i get more information about this problem and some pictures to enable the AHCI

i have the same problem