Downgrading Windows 7 professional to Windows XP

1 ANSWERS

1. Guest6567
   

   The downgrading process from Windows 7 to Windows XP involves the following steps:

   
   

   1. Open the ‘C’ drive of your Windows 7 drive, making sure that the Windows.old folder, has not been deleted, which was created by Windows while installing Windows 7 on XP drive. It should be noted that without the help of Windows.old folder, the downgrading is not possible.
   
   2. Next step is to check the size of Windows.old folder by right-clicking and then selecting properties. Make sure that Windows.old folder size is less than two times the amount of free space available on Windows 7 drive (C drive). If the Windows.old folder size is two times as large as the Windows 7 drive free space, disable system restore feature and also disk cleanup to get some free space. The Windows 7 drive letter and also DVD drive letter should be noted before proceeding to the next step.
   
   3. Reboot the machine by inserting your Windows 7 installation disc in the drive and. Press any key when asked to do so.
   
   4. After selecting the language, time, keyboard type then hit Next button to continue.
   
   5. Click Repair your computer option in the Install Windows screen, to open System Recovery Options.
   
   6. Select the Windows 7 OS here and note down the Windows 7 Drive letter before clicking Next.
   
   7. Click Command Prompt from the displayed options to start downgrading from Windows 7 to XP.
   
   8. First of all, move all the contents of the Windows 7 drive to a folder. So type the following commands one by one and then hit enter after each command (here “D” is your Windows 7 drive letter).
   
   D:
   
   Md Win7
   
   Move Windows Win7\Windows
   
   Move "Program Files" "Win7\Program Files"
   
   Move Users Win7\Users
   
   Attrib –h –s –r ProgramData
   
   Move ProgramData Win7\ProgramData
   
   Rd "Documents and Settings"

   
   

   9. A copy would be needed here of all the contents of Windows.old folder to the drive. Again, type all the commands mentioned below one by one and then hit enter after each command.
   
   move /y d:\Windows.old\Windows d:\
   
   move /y "d:\Windows.old\Program Files" d:\
   
   move /y "d:\Windows.old\Documents and Settings" d:\
   
   10. Next task is to restore the boot sector by entering the following command:
   
   E:\boot\bootsect /nt52 d:
   
   (Here E is the DVD driver letter & D is OS drive letter)
   
   11. Restore the boot.ini file finally, by executing the following commands:
   
   Attrib –h –s –r boot.ini.saved
   
   Copy boot.ini.saved boot.ini
   
   12. Reboot the machine by typing Exit and to start using the Windows XP again. The process is complete and if some free disk space is needed, delete Win7 folder in the root of your XP drive.

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