How do I 'downgrade' my Vista T61 to XP?

[Steerpike]

I'm all onboard with Vista and have deployed about 10 T61's with it, without issue. However - one particular user 'must have' (long story) XP so I figured it would be a simple matter of doing something with the 8 CDs that shipped with the T61 - an R&R CD (Bootable), 6 CDs for 'Product Recovery CDs for ... (XP SP2), and finally a CD labeled 'Supplemental Product Recovery CD for (list including my type).

So I first boot to the R&R CD, and choose the option to 'restore to factory' (which is not entirely true, of course, since 'factory' is Vista, but that seems the closest option). This essentially installs R&R on the system, and asks me to reboot, which I do - so now I'm booted into R&R 'on' the laptop (it formatted/wiped the drive, with only R&R on the drive - my guess).

But I cannot get it to 'do' anything with the 6 XP CDs. I get to the point where it says 'install the LAST of the disk set', so I put in disk 6 of 6, but it does not 'do' anything with it. I've also tried disk 1 of 6 but no go.

I'm obviously missing something here!

Thanks for any help!

[Steerpike]

"What a difference a day makes" ...

This morning I essentially repeated the process I followed last night, except this time, after the install of R&R to the hard drive, and before rebooting, I put the XP 'disk 1 of 6' in the drive (which is not a bootable disk). On startup, I was prompted to insert the 'Supplemental Product Recovery' disk, and then to insert 'disk 1. Basically the installation of XP proceded as I would expect.

So I'm not 100% sure what changed, other than having a CD in the drive during the boot - which should not have had any effect.

Anyway - if I get the chance, I'll repeat the process and better document it (the printed instructions that came with the 8 CD packet do not match the actual screens presented, by the way - instructions say (for example): Step 5: When the Rescue an Recovery workspace opens, click Continue on the welcome screen and then click 'Restore Factory Contents'. Well, 'Restore Factory Contents' is not an option (not exactly). So this suggests the instructions were written for a different version (Mine was R&R 4).

[Steerpike]

Arghhh ... OK - all 6 XP CDs tediously loaded, then I was prompted to restart. Restarted ... but comes straight back to the R&R product. I can't get XP to boot. I went into BIOS and turned SATA from ACHI to compatibility mode, no change. Any ideas?

Update - From the R&R screen, I chose (again) 'Restore your system', and this time noticed that the options presented were XP-centric, so I guess I'm on the right road.

My guess is that the 6 CDs simply loaded themselves into the factory restore area of the system, thus enabling a subsequent "restore to factory" ... . This is not what the written documentation suggests, but I guess I should not be surprised.