My client is trying to downgrade his new HP laptop from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows XP Pro. However, after he boots up the laptop with a Windows XP Pro installation disc, the installation process couldn’t proceed because it could not find a hard drive. The problem is that the laptop is using a SATA hard drive and Windows XP was not designed to support SATA by default. Normally on a desktop computer, you will need to press F6 at startup to tell the installation wizard that you can provide additional drivers from a floppy disk. Because this is a laptop, it doesn’t have a floppy drive so it is hard to get the drivers in.
SATA Native Support
Fortunately, for some laptops, there is an option in the BIOS to disable SATA Native Support. After disabling this option, in return for lower hard drive performance, Windows XP should be able to recognize the hard drive in the system and you can proceed with the installation as usual. No additional drivers should be required with this method. In the BIOS from the HP laptop that I am troubleshooting for my client, it even gives you a tip about disabling the SATA Native Support option when using an older operating system. (i.e. Windows XP is old!)
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