After the death of Windows XP, almost all notebook PCs come with
Windows Vista pre-installed. But if you like Windows XP more than
Windows Vista then a simple Windows XP wouldn’t suffice for installing
it on your notebook PC. If you BIOS has an option to change your hard
disk mode from SATA to IDE then you can just pop in the good old
Windows XP CD and get it set up within minutes. But if it doesn’t, then
you have to do it the other way as mentioned below.
You will just be requiring the Windows XP CD and a few softwares and
stuff that I will tell you as we go along. You might ask just why
wouldn’t a normal XP CD do the task? The answer is pretty simple. The
original Windows XP CD does not have SATA drivers so it can’t detect
your hard drive during the installation process. The solution is
simpler. Just slipstream them into the CD! So lets begin.
Step 1 : Download and install nLiteThis is an amazing software that lets you tweak and hack your XP CD
to the core with an extremely easy to use UI. Download and install the
software from
here.
Step 2 : Download SATA driversYou need to get your hands on the SATA drivers next, that you will
need to slipstream into the CD. Although there are different version
based on your motherboard that you can search them on
Intel website or download the standard ones
here, which work with most of the motherboards. After downloading extract the driver and remember the location.
Step 3 : Insert XP CD and start nLiteNow that you successfully have the tools and utilities, we can get
down with the real stuff. Launch nLite after inserting Windows XP CD
into the drive. Choose to make an image of Windows XP in a directory of
your choice. Click next and proceed to skip import or load previous
settings step by clicking next and proceed to next step.
Step 4 : Add the SATA driverOn the next page, you will find a “Drivers” tab. Click on it and
also check the bootable ISO option and then click on next. Click on the
button at the bottom to insert the driver. Give the location to the
folder where you extracted the SATA driver. You will find a couple of
inf files, select any one of them. Now select the all the driver files.
That is it, click Next.
Step 5 : Burn the ISOYou will now be asked for confirmation, select yes and let nLite
integrate the driver and create a bootable image. Burn it on a CD by
just hitting the Burn button at the bottom and you will be ready to
install Windows XP on your laptop!