Home over Pro

[Neal Lavon]

I am going to be installing a new version of WIndows XP home and I
want to get rid of my old Windows XP Pro on the home machine.

I want to place the new installation in the current C:/ partition
which is 100 GB of a 250 GB hard drive. The system partition is
obvioulsy C and the second partition on the drive is labelled G. The G
has lots of data on it.

During Setup, when I get to the point where I want to install on the
C partition which contains the current system, will Setup scan the
system, see the old XP Pro and say it can't be done? Or will Setup ask
me for a qualifying CD so I can then go on and delete the partition?
Or do I need to erase the partition first, then install?

Any help gratefully appreciated. Thank you.

Neal Lavon
Takoma Park, MD
USA

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I am going to be installing a new version of WIndows XP home and I
want to get rid of my old Windows XP Pro on the home machine.

I want to place the new installation in the current C:/ partition
which is 100 GB of a 250 GB hard drive. The system partition is
obvioulsy C and the second partition on the drive is labelled G. The G
has lots of data on it.

During Setup, when I get to the point where I want to install on the
C partition which contains the current system, will Setup scan the
system, see the old XP Pro and say it can't be done? Or will Setup ask
me for a qualifying CD so I can then go on and delete the partition?
Or do I need to erase the partition first, then install?

Any help gratefully appreciated. Thank you.

Home is a "downgrade" from Pro.
You have to format the C partition.
You have to backup all your stuff on that partition manually (email,
documents, contacts, pictures, etc.)
When done downgrading, you will have to reinstall all applications (Office,
etc.)
When booting from the Windows XP Home CD, it will ask you which partition to
install on - delete the C partition, recreate it, format it and install on
it.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You cannot install Windows XP Home Edition over an
existing Windows XP Professional installation. You
will have to perform a "clean install" as follows:

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I am going to be installing a new version of WIndows XP home and I
| want to get rid of my old Windows XP Pro on the home machine.
|
| I want to place the new installation in the current C:/ partition
| which is 100 GB of a 250 GB hard drive. The system partition is
| obvioulsy C and the second partition on the drive is labelled G. The G
| has lots of data on it.
|
| During Setup, when I get to the point where I want to install on the
| C partition which contains the current system, will Setup scan the
| system, see the old XP Pro and say it can't be done? Or will Setup ask
| me for a qualifying CD so I can then go on and delete the partition?
| Or do I need to erase the partition first, then install?
|
| Any help gratefully appreciated. Thank you.
|
| Neal Lavon
| Takoma Park, MD
| USA

 

[Ron Martell]

I am going to be installing a new version of WIndows XP home and I
want to get rid of my old Windows XP Pro on the home machine.

I want to place the new installation in the current C:/ partition
which is 100 GB of a 250 GB hard drive. The system partition is
obvioulsy C and the second partition on the drive is labelled G. The G
has lots of data on it.

During Setup, when I get to the point where I want to install on the
C partition which contains the current system, will Setup scan the
system, see the old XP Pro and say it can't be done? Or will Setup ask
me for a qualifying CD so I can then go on and delete the partition?
Or do I need to erase the partition first, then install?

Any help gratefully appreciated. Thank you.

Neal Lavon
Takoma Park, MD
USA

As others have said, you cannot do this without first completely
erasing the XP Pro install by formatting the hard drive partition
where XP Pro is installed.

You can use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in Windows XP to
save your user data files and program configuration settings to
another hard drive partition, a network drive, or a removable backup
device such as a CD or DVD burner before you format the partition.
Then after XP Home is installed you can run FASTW again to import the
saved information. Applications will still have to all be reinstalled
but the data and settings saved by FASTW makes the job much less
painful.

See the article on using FASTW by MVP Gary Woodruff at
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/fast.htm


Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Eric Dropps]

Out of pure curiosity, Why are you downgrading from pro to home?