Upgrading from xp home to professional

[Guest]

I have a laptop with xp home edition abd purchased a copy of xp professional.
I need to upgrade but need some tips on how to install xp pro, wipe out xp
home edition, but still not lose my important data. Any help you can offer
will be greatly appreciated! Thanks all!

Am afraid to just pop in the disk because the xp home came as a Dell bundle
with al of the drivers and so on.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Then your best bet is to back up anything you can't afford to lose and do an upgrade installation. Of course, if you're having problems, you may well keep them through the upgrade.

If you really want to do a clean install, use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to back up your data and start over from scratch. Download any available drivers for your system from Dell before you do and burn them to CD/DVD, as your machine allows.

 

[Guest]

First you'd want to run the file transfer wizard from the xp cd,set as old
computer,select data to save,save to new folder you create,once finished
move data to a cd.Then in xp pro,reopen FTW,reinstalled youre data.As for
the installation install xp pro cd,boot to xp pro cd,select install xp,new
copy,
delete the partition (xp home),create one,then xp formats and installs auto.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

the installation install xp pro cd,boot to xp pro cd,select install xp,new

copy,
delete the partition (xp home),create one,then xp formats and installs auto.

Bad idea. Better to format the XP Home partition. Deleting it can cause the hidden recovery partition to get the C: drive letter and the XP partition D:, or even worse if you have multiple drives or more than the two standard partitions. What this also doesn't take into account is the applications that shipped with the PC. Those are gone, as well, unless the vendor included the OEM media.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have a laptop with xp home edition abd purchased a copy of xp professional.
I need to upgrade but need some tips on how to install xp pro, wipe out xp
home edition, but still not lose my important data. Any help you can offer
will be greatly appreciated! Thanks all!

Am afraid to just pop in the disk because the xp home came as a Dell bundle
with al of the drivers and so on.

WinXP is designed to install and upgrade the existing operating
system while simultaneously preserving your applications and data, and
translating as many personalized settings as possible. The process is
designed to be, and normally is, quite painless. That said, things can
go wrong, in a small number of cases. If your data is at all important
to you, back it up before proceeding.

The upgrade from WinXP Home to WinXP Pro, in particular, almost
always goes smoothly, as both operating systems use the same kernel.

However, do you really need to upgrade? The WinXP Home and WinXP
Pro versions are _identical_ when it comes to performance, stability,
and device driver and software application compatibility, but are
intended to meet different functionality, networking, security, and
ease-of-use needs, in different environments. The most significant
differences are that WinXP Pro allows up to 10 simultaneous inbound
network connections while WinXP Home only allows only 5, WinXP Pro is
designed to join a Microsoft domain while WinXP Home cannot, and only
WinXP Pro supports file encryption and IIS. (Oh, and WinXP Pro usually
costs roughly $100 USD more than WinXP Home.)

Windows XP Comparison Guide
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.asp

Which Edition Is Right for You
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/whichxp.asp

Windows XP Home Edition vs. Professional Edition
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp


--

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. -Bertrum Russell

 

[Bruce Chambers]

..... As for
the installation install xp pro cd,boot to xp pro cd,select install xp,new
copy,
delete the partition (xp home),create one,then xp formats and installs auto.

That's *NOT* how one performs an upgrade!

--

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. -Bertrum Russell

 

[Guest]

Actually yes, I have to upgrade. Reason is, for my job I must install a
software for statistical analysis called SAS. It will not install on xp home
edition but will on xp pro. Why...I'm not sure but even the software
developers and their technical support tell you that xp home edition is not
supported and there is not a work-around.

since I'm a university employee the xp pro only cost me $12 so cost wasn't
much of an issue but not being able to run SAS is a huge problem. Someone
suggested typing ms noupdate in the run bar and trying to install sas again
but even if it worked, just having a software package that is said to be not
compatible could lead to future problems with it so...looks like an
unavoidable upgrade. Thanks everyone.

 

[Ken Blake]

First you'd want to run the file transfer wizard from the xp cd,set
as old computer,select data to save,save to new folder you
create,once finished move data to a cd.Then in xp pro,reopen
FTW,reinstalled youre data.As for the installation install xp pro
cd,boot to xp pro cd,select install xp,new copy,
delete the partition (xp home),create one,then xp formats and
installs auto.

b-leonard, please be aware that the above is nonsense. Andrew E., who wrote
the above, is our resident troll who deliberately misinforms people on this
and many other issues. He persists in giving people the same egregious piece
of misinformation that it's not possible to upgrade from Home to
Professional, no matter how many times I and others here have corrected him
and pointed him to the Microsoft site stating otherwise.

In fact, it's the easiest and most-likely successful of all possible
upgrades, since so little has to be changed. Easy as it may be, it's still
prudent to backup your data first, just in case something goes wrong.

 

[EggHead]

Hi

The XP you get from university is a full ver, not an upgrade unless
microsoft changes the rule.
You need to install it in a clear pc or clear partition. My classmate needs
to reformat the HD before install the pro version. May be you should try to
partition the drive with those partition software.

Egghead

 

[Carl Kaufmann]

Actually yes, I have to upgrade. Reason is, for my job I must install a
software for statistical analysis called SAS. It will not install on xp home
edition but will on xp pro. Why...I'm not sure but even the software
developers and their technical support tell you that xp home edition is not
supported and there is not a work-around.

This is very strange to me since I am currently running SAS 9.1.3 on
my XP Home laptop. Have you tried to install it or are you assuming
that since it is not supported (i.e. SAS tech support will tell you
to go fish) that it will not work?

<lossy compression>

Carl