Downgrade XP Professional to XP Home

[RadioRay]

Hi, I'd appreciate any help that can be offered ...

I want to reinstall my original copy of XP home (I have the original disks)
on my laptop, that was upgraded to XP Professional. I don't have the driver
disk that came with the computer, and am trying to avoid going through the
exercise of searching for those drivers, so I am trying not start from
scratch and do a complete reformat of the drive. So, I'd really like to just
uninstall XP Pro, and install XP home.

When I insert the XP home disks, and walk through the installation
instructions, I can't get the installation to run (without reformatting, and
starting from scratch).

Can anyone help?

Thx in advance for any help that can be offered.

 

[TaurArian]

You can't downgrade from WinXP Pro to WinXP Home. You can upgrade from WinXP Home to WinXP
Pro. The hard drive must be reformated prior to reinstalling WinXP Home.

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


--
====================================
TaurArian [MVP] 2005-2008 - Australia
====================================
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
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Emails will not be acknowledged - please post to the newsgroup so all may benefit.


| Hi, I'd appreciate any help that can be offered ...
|
| I want to reinstall my original copy of XP home (I have the original disks)
| on my laptop, that was upgraded to XP Professional. I don't have the driver
| disk that came with the computer, and am trying to avoid going through the
| exercise of searching for those drivers, so I am trying not start from
| scratch and do a complete reformat of the drive. So, I'd really like to just
| uninstall XP Pro, and install XP home.
|
| When I insert the XP home disks, and walk through the installation
| instructions, I can't get the installation to run (without reformatting, and
| starting from scratch).
|
| Can anyone help?
|
| Thx in advance for any help that can be offered.
| --
| Ray

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi, I'd appreciate any help that can be offered ...

I want to reinstall my original copy of XP home (I have the original disks)
on my laptop, that was upgraded to XP Professional. I don't have the driver
disk that came with the computer, and am trying to avoid going through the
exercise of searching for those drivers, so I am trying not start from
scratch and do a complete reformat of the drive. So, I'd really like to just
uninstall XP Pro, and install XP home.

When I insert the XP home disks, and walk through the installation
instructions, I can't get the installation to run (without reformatting, and
starting from scratch).

You can't. Downgrades are not supported. The only way to go from
Professional to Home is by reformatting and clean installing. 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


May I ask why you want to do this? Are you aware that XP Home is a
subset of XP Professional. There are extra features in Professional,
but there is nothing in Home that isn't also in Professional, and no
possible advantage to doing this.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi, I'd appreciate any help that can be offered ...

I want to reinstall my original copy of XP home (I have the original disks)
on my laptop, that was upgraded to XP Professional. I don't have the driver
disk that came with the computer, and am trying to avoid going through the
exercise of searching for those drivers, so I am trying not start from
scratch and do a complete reformat of the drive. So, I'd really like to just
uninstall XP Pro, and install XP home.

When I insert the XP home disks, and walk through the installation
instructions, I can't get the installation to run (without reformatting, and
starting from scratch).

Can anyone help?

Thx in advance for any help that can be offered.

I'm afraid that the only way to change from WinXP Pro 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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