Dual booting windows XP on windows 7 laptop

[dansat]

Hi guys, first post on the forum

I've been trying to install windows xp on my netbook as a dual boot, hoping it will be faster and run some older games I play better than windows 7. I made a partition then tried to install the OS from the disc. The installation will start before I get a blue screen saying it's being shut down to prevent damage to the computer.

After a bit of reading online (probably a good idea) I think its because I don't have the correct drivers on my netbook. I installed a program called "driver tool" which scans your hardware and can find the right drivers for running a certain OS. It can then put them on a disc/usb for use during installation. It looked perfect until I realized you had to pay £30 for it, which I can't afford.

Does anyone know a similiar free program, or another method of making sure I download all the correct drivers for my hardware for running XP? Also after reading the guide on dual booting on here, can you really only install a newer OS after an older one? What will be the problems with doing this and is there any way round it?

 

[johnb35]

Its because your netbook is in ahci mode and xp doesn't have any native drivers for it. You can try looming in the bios to see if you can change data controller to ide or compatibility mode. If you can't you will have to install the sata controller driver at the beginning of the xp install. Just be careful because. You will end up screwing up the windows 7 bootloader.