Downgrading annd Recovery Partiton Questions

[Brayden_W]

As the title states I'm downgrading my system's OS. I am using a HP Pavilion a6245n just bought before Christmas of 2008. Speculations are mostly default (2 gig ram, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40 ghz, 320 gig HD, running 32-bit Vista Home Premium), the only non factory part is a nVidia 8500 GT graphics card plugged into a PCI-Express slot. I want to downgrade my operating system back to Windows XP Pro.

I have some questions before I do so...

#1 - I plan to format over the recovery partition (using Gnome Partition Editor). I have fully working recovery CDs so I'm covered in the change my mind department. The issue is will erasing this partition damage the boot/BIOS in any way?

#2 - If erasing the recovery partition doesn't harm the computer is there a method to remove the option to restore system from the HP boot screen after removing the partition?

#3 - Will the drivers for the ethernet, audio, etc adaptors (obviously the nVidia is out of you jurisdiction) be available for Windows XP? If so could you supply URLs or help point me as to where I'd find them?

Sorry if these questions have ben asked and answere before, but I think you can appreciate that I want to cover all my bases before going through with this downgrade. Thanks for your time and please get back to me soon.

[Drew Monteiro]

Hi Brayden

With regards to the recovery partition, if you are using gparted (Gnome Partition Manager)once you have cleared all the partition information from the drive the BIOS will see the drive in the same was as a brand new drive, I am not aware of any way to remove the HP restore option from boot but changing the OS will not effect that (however with no partition available you will not be able to use it).

I am assuming that you are using a linux live disc to do this on and would suggest not creating a new partition on the drive before running the XP install.

You will need some SATA drivers, if you download SP32478 from http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-39535-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3213867&os=228

HP only list Vista on their support site so you will need to get the drivers from the vendors

Audio (Realtek 6.0.1.5548) - ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp38501-39000/sp38899.exe

VGA (Intel 7.14.10.1461) - http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericSoftwareDownloadIndex?cc=uk&dlc=en&lc=en&softwareitem=pv-59448-1&jumpid=reg_R1002_UKEN

Modem - http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=pv-61422-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3300335&os=2093〈=en

having a bit of trouble finding the Network and chipset drivers (not even listed on HP site for Vista)

Hope this helps