Reformating my Laptop With a Broken Screen

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-CR120E and my laptop screen cracked a while back so now I’m using an external monitor a DELL to be exact and I’m trying to reformat my laptop but the problem is that when I boot up my laptop the monitor doesn’t turn on until the login screen pops up. So I was wondering how I could reformat with the external monitor or if I could downgrade windows 7 to XP without having to boot up?
Answer #1
try disconnecting the busted lappy display, then the boot screen & windowsXP screens should show on the external monitor
the piece of plastic between the keyboard and display on most lappy’s is removable by prying it up at the ends, an removing it should give you access to the display connector & cable
be gentle !
M$ won’t let you downgrade from inside another OS as far as I know
winnt.exe in the i386 folder on the CD is the XP manual “setup” file
double click that file and see if it starts
Answer #2
You can buy a brand new LCD screen for £65
Answer #3
edwoodweb replied: try disconnecting the busted lappy display, then the boot screen & windowsXP screens should show on the external monitor
the piece of plastic between the keyboard and display on most lappy's is removable by prying it up at the ends, an removing it should give you access to the display connector & cable
be gentle !
M$ won't let you downgrade from inside another OS as far as I know
winnt.exe in the i386 folder on the CD is the XP manual "setup" file
double click that file and see if it starts
Alright I will try that thank you for the help it is appreciated.
Answer #4
Alright I will try that
good luck, it worked for me on a dell !