Problems switching from XP Pro to XP Home

G

Guest

I recently purchased a used computer from a friend of mine. It has windows XP Professional on it and I want to switch from Pro to XP home. From what I've read this should be doable with my motherboard, so I purchased XP home edition. Unfortunately, when I inserted the XP home disk and clicked "Install" from the auto-run window it gave me the following message

"YOUR CURRENT INSTALLATION OF WINDOWS IS NOT A SUPPORTED UPGRADE PATH.-SETUP CANNOT CONTINUE

I know it isnt a hardware issue, considering this board has been distributed with XP pre-installed. I have a large amount of files on my PC that I dont want to lose, how can I go about switching OSs?
 
C

Carey Frisch [MVP]

You need to follow this procedure for a clean install:

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 format the existing
C: Windows partition (preferably NTFS) and then 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/security/protect/

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

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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


|I recently purchased a used computer from a friend of mine. It has windows XP Professional on it and I want
to switch from Pro to XP home. From what I've read this should be doable with my motherboard, so I purchased
XP home edition. Unfortunately, when I inserted the XP home disk and clicked "Install" from the auto-run
window it gave me the following message:
|
| "YOUR CURRENT INSTALLATION OF WINDOWS IS NOT A SUPPORTED UPGRADE PATH.-SETUP CANNOT CONTINUE"
|
| I know it isnt a hardware issue, considering this board has been distributed with XP pre-installed. I have
a large amount of files on my PC that I dont want to lose, how can I go about switching OSs?
 
G

Guest

Carey Frish: "Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:"

Isnt there a way to do this WITHOUT formatting my hard drive?
 
B

Bruce Chambers

Greetings --

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.

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

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
 

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