Problems:

– Sony Vaio computer which need to downgrade from Vista to XP

– Not fully functional optical drive Matashita (reads only dvd not cd)

– Windows XP cannot find the hard disk during the installation process

Solution:

The solution of the problem is to install XP with Additional drivers pressing F6 when prompted to. As XP requires a Floppy Drive for this sake, I had to create a separate installation CD for the machine which includes the required drivers. Of course as the Optical Device was not properly working I burned the compilation on DVD.

Step by step (how to):

– download your drivers from Sony my case was VGN-AR21M

– download and instal Nlite

– choose your source (original source of the OS) and destination (en empty folder intended on your c: partition)

– when the dialog appears make sure that you select Drivers and Bootable ISO (if you want you can add other features to your compilation)

– now you have to insert the driver required by XP to see your hard disks, I personally have added to drivers:
    — iastor.inf – Intel(R) 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH7M) depending on your configuration (if you have two disks in RAID volume) you might choose Intel(R) 82801GHM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH7M/DH)
    — SI3132.inf – Silicon Image Sil 3132 SATALink Controller for Windows XP/ Server 2003

– bur the compilation on a DVD

– install OS