James said:
Thanks a lot - BUT ...
I really do need to make everyone's machine match in every way.
Therefore I NEED to get all machines on to XP Home.
The two machines that are now successfully running Home got their
operating systems from retail bought media upgrade disks.
Similarly, I bought a Home upgrade disk to move the third machine
from Pro to home.
The Pro machine was inherited from a previous iteration of our
business and did/does not have any media available for it Pro
operating system.
Now that I have nothing but a blue screen and the error shown
earlier - are there any options to help me avoid buying a new PC?
We're small so all ways to get through this free are greatly
appreciated. Thanks, in advance.
You bought the upgrade version to upgrade from Windows XP Professional to
Windows XP Home.
That could very well be your problem - since that is a downgrade and not a
valid path.
Purchase a full version (OEM or Retail) of Windows XP Home Edition and
perform a clean install - deleting all previous information off the drive by
deleting the patrtitions and creating new ones and formatting after booting
from the CD.
(I would tell you to do this with the Windows XP Home Upgrade CD - if you
had a qualifying upgrade OS to use - but Windows XP Professional does not
qualify you for a upgrade. Yes - you can perform clean installs from
Upgrade CDs *if* you have qualifying upgrade media.)
As for making the machines match in every way.. That seems like an
obsession more than a reality. *grin* Windows XP Professional and Windows
XP Home are the same except for a few features that you obviously do not use
and would not use still. Therefore you could have saved the small business
money by not using the features and leaving it XP Professional. The
look/feel/installation/patches needed/etc would have remained the same.
In any case - you need to purchase the FULL operating system that you want
on the machine, boot it from CD, delete all partition information, create
new partition(s), format them and install from scratch the OS of your
choice. When it is done installing - you may need to visit the
manufacturer's web page (of the laptop) and grab drivers to install for all
the components - because it is highly unlikely that Windows XP will have all
the drivers needed inclusive.