Dell-Win Home XP deleted and 1/2 Prof XP

[Cheryl]

I had jammed up my Dell Lat D800 laptop. It was in a boot loop and Windows
would not open. Someone tried to fix it. Now I do not have the Windows Home
XP option and only have Windows Professional XP option to boot from. However,
I am getting an error to insert the Windows XP Pro Serv Pack 2 CD because
files are missing, in which I do not have. Can I purchase a new Windows Home
XP and install it? Or do I have to now purchase a Windows Pro XP which is
more expensive? I do not want to purchase the Home only to find out I had to
puchase the Pro. (Ive tried downloading from the MicroSoft site the boot
discs and nothing works without the Pro Serv Pack 2 disk.) Also if I have to
purchase the Pro will the Home be included?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

You need to contact Dell for assistance and any replacement cd for XP Home
on your laptop. You may have a recovery option already on the hard drive
and Dell would be able to tell you how to use it.

The person who assisted you must have used his own XP cd, which was for the
wrong edition. It sounds like he installed XP Pro and either he must
provide you with the software and the license to use it or you are not using
a licensed copy of Windows.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I had jammed up my Dell Lat D800 laptop. It was in a boot loop and Windows
would not open. Someone tried to fix it. Now I do not have the Windows
Home
XP option and only have Windows Professional XP option to boot from.
However,
I am getting an error to insert the Windows XP Pro Serv Pack 2 CD because
files are missing, in which I do not have. Can I purchase a new Windows
Home
XP and install it? Or do I have to now purchase a Windows Pro XP which is
more expensive? I do not want to purchase the Home only to find out I had
to
puchase the Pro. (Ive tried downloading from the MicroSoft site the boot
discs and nothing works without the Pro Serv Pack 2 disk.) Also if I have
to
purchase the Pro will the Home be included?

Unfortunately you're not really in a great spot here.

Your system came with a legitimate license for XP Home. Someone else
upgraded this, probably needlessly, to XP Pro, in an effort to fix it.

You can't get back to XP Home without doing a clean install. The drive
has to be cleared as part of this, removing all installed apps and data.

Your very first concern now is to be sure that all of your data and settings
are backed up. A really good way of looking after this involves attaching
your system's drive to another working XP system, and either copying the
files or taking an image of the disk, perhaps using the free trial version
of Acronis TrueImage Home. It works for 14 days, IIRC, and that should be
enough time to do the job. This will take a picture of *all* the files on
the drive, so you don't have to worry that you missed something (which is
quite possible since many mail files are in hidden folders).

You can get an XP Pro license if you feel you *need* the options of XP Pro.
XP Pro does, yes, contain the functions of XP Home, but adds functions you
may not need, such as the ability to join a network domain, encryption,
ability to run Internet Information Service, and Remote Desktop. You'll
pay probably an extra hundred dollars for these, which you may never use if
you were happy with XP Home. Sometimes I choose XP Home for clients
because I want to prevent the kinds of trouble that these features can lead
to if they are used improperly.

Expect to pay at least a couple of hundred dollars for an XP Pro License.
It's probably not a good idea to get a cheaper "OEM" version, get the Retail
Upgrade version instead; this will allow real upgrade installs.

A new XP Pro license should allow you to do a repair install, without the
requirement of a clean install. But back up anyway!

But first, I would suggest that you contact Dell regarding getting
replacement restore media, or the System Restore partition if that system
had one. This is going to be your least expensive option.

And first, back your files up!

HTH
-pk