Downgrading to Windows Vista Business on Satellite L655d-S5050

My organization recently acquired three Toshiba Satellite L655D-S5050 laptops all with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. We need to downgrade to Windows Vista Business 32-bit in order to add the computers to our network domain and also access some network applications.

But the problem is that, when we are installing Windows Vista Business on any of these laptops, anytime the installation gets to the "Completing installation" screen, it stays there forever and nothing happens. You have to force a shut down and the installation becomes unusable.

Installing Windows XP Pro SP3 also gives a Blue Screen during the installation process.

Any ideas on what the problem might be? We really need these computers to run Vista Business.



Thank you.

 

I'm not to up-to-date with Toshiba, but are these systems new? Let them sit on the Completing Installation screen for a couple hours and see how it goes. If nothing, then I wouldn't hesitate to say it's probably a HDD issue, or, If you are using the same disc for each installation, the Installation Disc may be damaged or not working properly.

 

They are all brand new. But I'm using the same installation disc. That could be the problem. I will try another installation disc to see the results. Thanks.

 

If the replacement disc gives you the same result I would look at setting the laptop to COMPATIBILITY MODE in the BIOS. If that allows you to complete the installation, then install your AHCI drivers and then change COMPABILITY MODE to SATA.

 

Wipe out completely your win7(e.g with Easus partition manager) and then install Vista on an empty HDD provided your Vista installation disc is not damaged.

 

I have to ask the question, if you can use Vista then why can't you just use Win7 that came with the machines? There is no substantive structural difference between the two. Anything that runs under Vista should work just fine with Win 7. The architecture of the two is identical, the only real difference is in the codebase but not the structure at all. What issues do you have with Win 7 over Vista?

Gary

 

OP wants to switch from Home Premium to Business for extra features, which isn't a downgrade.

Besides, businesses have their rules....

 

This did the trick. Thank you very much.

 

Now Vista has been installed. The problem now is getting drivers. Any ideas on where I could get the drivers since those on the Toshiba website are all for Win7.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hmm, good question... As the notebook was made for Windows 7, finding the drivers are going to be tricky... Though, you could try the Windows 7 drivers and see what happens.

 

Your Windows 7 ACHI drivers if available from Toshiba should work as has been mentioned before Vista and Windows 7 are essentially the same.

You can also try these drivers, they work on my Dell: http://dlsvr.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/sata/IMSM_V8901023_Windows7.zip