I caught a virus a couple of months ago and I was unable to turn my computer on so I asked one of my friends for one of his window 7 cds to see if it would help. I'm not quite sure if my virus went away after that but my computer has been working perfectly fine. But the thing is that I didn't have the activation code for windows 7 but it still worked. The only problem is that I'd like to downgrade windows 7 back to windows xp. I had the windows xp home edition before I downloaded windows 7. Am I able to do that? Help would be appreciated.
Yes, you can do that with a Clean Install which means you have to format the drive, eiping out any and all data so please make sure you backup anything you want to keep first.
You can install any OS you want (as long as it's legally acquired), and to put xp back on is as easy as any other OS, BUT, you can't just "£downgrade it" the way you may be hoping too, you can not just click a button and roll back too a previous OS, the ONLY way you can revert is to do a fresh installation of the OS you want too use, and to do this you either need the disk of the OS you own, or if a store bought system go into the recovery mode and tell it too reset the system too as new, and with the history you mention I suggest selecting to do a destructive recovery.
That may sound harsh, but as you mention an infection, and as you had a different OS installed, this is the only way to remove ALL remnants of these files, but it will also remove ALL your own files at the same time, so if you have any data to save, then save that before starting a reinstall, or you WILL lose it.
Now as well intentioned as you're mate may have been trying to lend you his disk to get past an infection, it will only make things worse, the ONLY ways too remove infections are via software (various protection tools), and possibly even advanced tools under instruction of the pro's, or to reinstall the system all together.
But some infections can return after a normal reinstall, you need to completely wipe the system including the CMOS etc to stop it returning if it's that bad, BUT, do not blindly format a drive of a store bought system or you could destroy the recovery files, always ask if in doubt, but adding another OS does nothing but make things worse, so if in doubt in the future ask the pro's for advice to get the best and most accurate advice for YOU'RE situation each time.
So to get back to the original state, we need to know what system you have (make\model), and more so if it was store bought, has system recovery disks, or an OS disk if it's an older build, newer systems preload a recovery section with all the files required to return to out of the box state, as though it's the first day you opened the box, with this we can hopefully guide you through what to do, but make sure you back up any files you can't lose, or you will lose them, hope this gets you started.
*edit
Curse my slow typing again lol
The model is a PCV-RS720G and the orginal OS is factory windows xp home edition. I still have the serial key on the back. It's just that when I got the virus, my computer wouldnt even load but it would turn on. Like, it would turn on but the screen stayed black. Also, I dont have any of the system cds because this is an old computer bought back in 2004 so I pretty much misplaced it a long time ago… I dont have files that I would like to keep, so backing up files is not necessary at the moment. Is there anything else you need to know?
Your PCV-RS720G is from Sony.
Therefore the CD media for installing XP is proprietary to Sony and only available from Sony.
Most likely Sony will supply a copy of the CD to you.
You will have to demonstrate that you are the owner of the machine
And then you can use that XP installation media CD from Sony along with your Product ID Code from the certificate of authenticity from the sticker on your machine's case.
So given the above, and from what I have found, you will need to buy recovery disks from the makers, this system appears to be of an age where you get no disks, and the 1st job recommended by the makers is that you create you're own set of recovery disks before using it, so if you didn't do that, or have lost them, you need to get new ones, the following are 2 links, one is instructions on what to do to use the disks, the other is a link to get these disks, hope this helps. How to perform a system recovery using Recovery Discs How to purchase recovery CD/DVDs for computer products
All that said, this system does appear to have the data on a partition on the drive, so if you get lucky, you may be able to reload the system directly rather than use recovery disks, so assuming you are able to get online with another system if you get stuck, it can't hurt to try the following first, take special note of step 6. Cannot start the VAIO Recovery Wizard because the computer will not start to the operating system
