Changing Media Center to Home Edition

[Guest]

I just bought a new Hard Drive and put Media Center on it as my OS. I now
want to uninstal Media Center and put Home Edition on instead. How do I do
this?

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I just bought a new Hard Drive and put Media Center on it as my OS. I now
want to uninstal Media Center and put Home Edition on instead. How do I do
this?

I'm afraid that the only way to change from WinXP MCE to WinXP Home
is to format the drive and start over. There is no supported downgrade
path or technique.

After backing up any data you wish to transfer to the new OS
installation,, simply boot from the WinXP Home installation CD. You'll
be offered the opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as
part of the installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order
of boot devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

Then the backed up data can be restored and applications re-installed.



--

Bruce Chambers

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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Guest]

I have been trying to format but I cant find the option to when I boot from
the cd. Should just select delete partions on my HD? Is it ok to just install
the home over Media?

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have been trying to format but I cant find the option to when I boot from
the cd. Should just select delete partions on my HD?

Yes, deleting and recreating the partition is acceptable. The result
is the same.

Is it ok to just install
the home over Media?

It's not possible.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I just bought a new Hard Drive and put Media Center on it as my OS. I now
want to uninstal Media Center and put Home Edition on instead. How do I do
this?

Why do you want to do this? Are you aware that Media Center is a
superset of XP Home? There are some extra features in Media Center,
but there's nothing in Home that isn't also in Media Center. If you
don't want to use the extra Media Center features, just don't use
them.

The only way to do this is doing a clean installation of XP. Just boot
from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if necessary to
accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean installation
(delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when prompted, then
create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm