Revert to XP without windows.old

For some unexplainable reason, I cannot find windows.old on my pc. I wish to
revert to XP from Vista Business. Here are details:
1. Purchased eMachines pc Dec 06 with XP Media Center installed, with free
upgrade to Vista when available.
2. obtained Express Upgrade to Windows Vista and installed it May 07.
3. I have emachines operating system disk called "Windows XP MC version 2005
with Update Rollup 2" which has the following printed on it: Use this disc to
re-install your operating system.
4. computer: 2G RAM, Pent 4, 3GHz, 160G hard drive with about 100G free
(includes a d: drive partition), 250G external hard drive.
Question 1: despite absence of windows.old, is there any way to kill Vista
and re-install XP MC? A clean reformat, perhaps?
Question 2: if it is possible, I need step-by-step. Can you furnish this?
Thanks. Mike

Mike F from TN wrote:

> For some unexplainable reason, I cannot find windows.old on my pc. I wish
> to revert to XP from Vista Business. Here are details:
> 1. Purchased eMachines pc Dec 06 with XP Media Center installed, with free
> upgrade to Vista when available.
> 2. obtained Express Upgrade to Windows Vista and installed it May 07.
> 3. I have emachines operating system disk called "Windows XP MC version
> 2005 with Update Rollup 2" which has the following printed on it: Use this
> disc to re-install your operating system.
> 4. computer: 2G RAM, Pent 4, 3GHz, 160G hard drive with about 100G free
> (includes a d: drive partition), 250G external hard drive.
> Question 1: despite absence of windows.old, is there any way to kill Vista
> and re-install XP MC? A clean reformat, perhaps?
> Question 2: if it is possible, I need step-by-step. Can you furnish this?
> Thanks. Mike

If Windows.old doesn't exist, you'll need to restore your computer to
factory condition. Back up any data and use the eMachines install disk.
Refer to the eMachines manual or tech support website for how to restore to
factory condition with their media. Or take a look here:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...alling_Windows - What
you will need on-hand

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Malke, you have helped me before. thanks. the data backups i have been making
were done on an external drive. they are safe but they were made using vista.
will they restore if i revert back to xp?

"Malke" wrote:

> Mike F from TN wrote:
>
> > For some unexplainable reason, I cannot find windows.old on my pc. I wish
> > to revert to XP from Vista Business. Here are details:
> > 1. Purchased eMachines pc Dec 06 with XP Media Center installed, with free
> > upgrade to Vista when available.
> > 2. obtained Express Upgrade to Windows Vista and installed it May 07.
> > 3. I have emachines operating system disk called "Windows XP MC version
> > 2005 with Update Rollup 2" which has the following printed on it: Use this
> > disc to re-install your operating system.
> > 4. computer: 2G RAM, Pent 4, 3GHz, 160G hard drive with about 100G free
> > (includes a d: drive partition), 250G external hard drive.
> > Question 1: despite absence of windows.old, is there any way to kill Vista
> > and re-install XP MC? A clean reformat, perhaps?
> > Question 2: if it is possible, I need step-by-step. Can you furnish this?
> > Thanks. Mike
>
> If Windows.old doesn't exist, you'll need to restore your computer to
> factory condition. Back up any data and use the eMachines install disk.
> Refer to the eMachines manual or tech support website for how to restore to
> factory condition with their media. Or take a look here:
>
> http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...alling_Windows - What
> you will need on-hand
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!
>

Mike F from TN wrote:

> Malke, you have helped me before. thanks. the data backups i have been
> making were done on an external drive. they are safe but they were made
> using vista. will they restore if i revert back to xp?

You were using Vista's backup utility? If that's the case, then I don't
think so. You'd better restore your stuff and back it up in a different way
then. This is why I hate backup programs that put the files in a
proprietary format; you need to have the backup program installed on the
target computer to restore the backup generally.

However, I don't pretend to have any expertise with Vista's backup utility
since I prefer Second Copy for plain backing up and Acronis True Image for
imaging. So you might want to get a second opinion on restoring data made
with Vista's backup utility.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

just what i needed to know, malke. i have a stand-alone backup utility that
came with my external drive that i will use to back up the data files. i'm
just going to stay away from anything that says vista on it until this is
done. since i'm doing a complete clean installation of XP MC, there should be
no need for an image backup. also, i have made copies of everything on those
two links you gave me. i also have lots of other opinions about this, but
yours has been the most helpful so far.

"Malke" wrote:

> Mike F from TN wrote:
>
> > Malke, you have helped me before. thanks. the data backups i have been
> > making were done on an external drive. they are safe but they were made
> > using vista. will they restore if i revert back to xp?
>
> You were using Vista's backup utility? If that's the case, then I don't
> think so. You'd better restore your stuff and back it up in a different way
> then. This is why I hate backup programs that put the files in a
> proprietary format; you need to have the backup program installed on the
> target computer to restore the backup generally.
>
> However, I don't pretend to have any expertise with Vista's backup utility
> since I prefer Second Copy for plain backing up and Acronis True Image for
> imaging. So you might want to get a second opinion on restoring data made
> with Vista's backup utility.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!
>

my stand-alone backup utility is not vista compatible. i will now have to ask
others out there if they think data file backups made with vista's backup
utility will be able to be restored when i revert to xp, which will be
"clean" installed after i trash vista. help please.

"Malke" wrote:

> Mike F from TN wrote:
>
> > Malke, you have helped me before. thanks. the data backups i have been
> > making were done on an external drive. they are safe but they were made
> > using vista. will they restore if i revert back to xp?
>
> You were using Vista's backup utility? If that's the case, then I don't
> think so. You'd better restore your stuff and back it up in a different way
> then. This is why I hate backup programs that put the files in a
> proprietary format; you need to have the backup program installed on the
> target computer to restore the backup generally.
>
> However, I don't pretend to have any expertise with Vista's backup utility
> since I prefer Second Copy for plain backing up and Acronis True Image for
> imaging. So you might want to get a second opinion on restoring data made
> with Vista's backup utility.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!
>

"Malke" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> You were using Vista's backup utility? If that's the case, then I don't
> think so. You'd better restore your stuff and back it up in a different
> way
> then. This is why I hate backup programs that put the files in a
> proprietary format; you need to have the backup program installed on the
> target computer to restore the backup generally.

Absolutely. Do you remember all the posts that went: "I backed up my data in
W98, went to XP and now I can't read my backups...."

"Mike F from TN" <> wrote in message
news:E13C5E94-6242-488A-99BB-...
> my stand-alone backup utility is not vista compatible. i will now have to
> ask
> others out there if they think data file backups made with vista's backup
> utility will be able to be restored when i revert to xp, which will be
> "clean" installed after i trash vista. help please.
>


I think the answer is not - MS has NEVER addressed the compatibility of
built-in backups right from Windows 98. XP used a different format to W98
and I expect that Vista uses a different format yet again.
Your best bet is to buy a copy of Acronis Trueimage - that will run on both
Vista and XP and obviously uses the same file format.
It's not expensive either BTW...

Mike F from TN wrote:

> just what i needed to know, malke. i have a stand-alone backup utility
> that came with my external drive that i will use to back up the data
> files. i'm just going to stay away from anything that says vista on it
> until this is done. since i'm doing a complete clean installation of XP
> MC, there should be no need for an image backup. also, i have made copies
> of everything on those two links you gave me. i also have lots of other
> opinions about this, but yours has been the most helpful so far.

Sounds like a plan, but do heed my warning about backup programs that put
your files in a proprietary format. If your stand-alone utility just copies
the files, great. If not, I strongly recommend using something like Second
Copy ($29.95) instead. Second Copy just copies files. It can do a lot of
things, but basically your files are saved in their original formats. Makes
transferring data to another computer completely easy. No, I don't work for
them or make any money from the recommendation; I've just used it for
clients for years and been quite pleased with it.

Acronis True Image also does incremental backups but I've never used it for
that so I don't know if it puts the files into a proprietary format. I use
True Image extensively on my PCs to image installations and think it's
great.

Cheers,

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

"Malke" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Acronis True Image also does incremental backups but I've never used it
> for
> that so I don't know if it puts the files into a proprietary format. I use
> True Image extensively on my PCs to image installations and think it's
> great.
>

I think it does put the backups into proprietary format - having said that,
the same version of Acronis will work on both XP and Vista, so that's not so
much of a problem...