Someone please help

[terrie]

Until this past weekend I ran my computer on Windows 98.
A friend gave me XP Professional to try, so I loaded it,
liked it, and went to Office Max the next day to buy my
own. The salesman said I would have to reinstall 98, but
I only needed to buy the $99 upgrade package of XP Home,
not the total package. 98 will not reinstall on my PC and
the upgrade won't run because it's already there. I'm not
sure what the heck to do now. I keep getting a message
telling me I've got 28 days to activate and can't
activate the program I loaded because it's not mine, nor
can I load what I bought. Can anybody help?????????

 

[Jim Macklin]

Just do a repair install with your CD and use the product
key that you paid for.
see
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q315341&ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341


--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.


message | Until this past weekend I ran my computer on Windows 98.
| A friend gave me XP Professional to try, so I loaded it,
| liked it, and went to Office Max the next day to buy my
| own. The salesman said I would have to reinstall 98, but
| I only needed to buy the $99 upgrade package of XP Home,
| not the total package. 98 will not reinstall on my PC and
| the upgrade won't run because it's already there. I'm not
| sure what the heck to do now. I keep getting a message
| telling me I've got 28 days to activate and can't
| activate the program I loaded because it's not mine, nor
| can I load what I bought. Can anybody help?????????

 

[MrB]

XP Home is not an upgrade to XP Pro. You could clean the hard drive and
install your XP Home. It will ask for your legal copy of 98 to prove that
you own a product that can be upgraded. 98 does not have to be re-installed.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

If you are trying to install windows 98 over windows xp then this is the
reason you cannot install win 98. Win 98 is older than xp and you cannot
install an older version over a newer one. As you already have win 98 you
should have a windows 98 start-up disk. Insert this into your floppy drive
and boot to the 'dos' prompt (the 'A' prompt) At the 'A' prompt type "format
c:" (without the quotes) You will be advised that 'all data will be
destroyed' You have to accept this in order to proceed. Your hard drive will
now format destroying the copy of xp you already have installed. After
formatting insert your windows 98 cd and reboot your machine. You should now
be able to install windows 98. After win 98 has been installed remove the
win 98 cd and insert the win xp cd and follow the on screen prompt to
upgrade your machine from win 98 to win xp.

 

[dude]

When you loaded your friend xp , was it a upgrade version
as well ??? If so then just enter the license keys that
you bought your copy and see if that works ... If not
then do a clean install , do a fdisk formate on your hard
drive , afterward you should be able to reinstall 98
again , once that is done then just load your xp and you
should be fine ....

 

[Jim Macklin]

Just noticed that your friend gave you an XP Pro CD and you
bought (or were thinking about buying) an XP Home upgrade.
To do the repair install you must use the same version, home
or pro. If Pro is installed you must buy an XP Pro upgrade
CD to do the repair install.


in message | Just do a repair install with your CD and use the product
| key that you paid for.
| see
|
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q315341&ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341
|
|
| --
| The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
| But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.
|
|
| message || Until this past weekend I ran my computer on Windows 98.
|| A friend gave me XP Professional to try, so I loaded it,
|| liked it, and went to Office Max the next day to buy my
|| own. The salesman said I would have to reinstall 98, but
|| I only needed to buy the $99 upgrade package of XP Home,
|| not the total package. 98 will not reinstall on my PC and
|| the upgrade won't run because it's already there. I'm not
|| sure what the heck to do now. I keep getting a message
|| telling me I've got 28 days to activate and can't
|| activate the program I loaded because it's not mine, nor
|| can I load what I bought. Can anybody help?????????
|
|

 

[Bob Knowlden]

Did you install XP Pro as an upgrade over 98?

If so, you may be able to uninstall it.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303661&Product=winxp

"How to uninstall Windows XP and revert to a previous operating system"

There are a number of things that you could have done that could make this
unworkable. In that case, you'd have to back up your critical data, and
reformat the drive.

I have read that XP Home can't be installed over XP Pro. (XP Pro can be
installed over XP Home, although that isn't helpful to you.) You also can
use an XP Home product key with XP Pro. The salesman at Office Max misled
you. (Probably in error, rather than through malice.)

You have one other alternative: buy XP Pro instead. (Get a full or update
version, not an OEM copy, which won't do an upgrade.) The down side to this
is that it's more expensive than XP Home.

I'm not optimistic that you can return the copy of XP Home, but if you can,
and you have access to a CompUSA, see:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?ref=dsr&product_code=285711&pfp=external&tabtype=rb

(link may wrap). They have the XP Pro upgrade for sale this week for $120US;
as far as I can tell from the ad, there's no qualifying additional purchase
necessary. (Seems too good to be true, but it might be worth a try.) Maybe
you could persuade Office Max to let you exchange XP Home for Pro, and to
match the CompUSA price. That would be the elegant solution.

Good luck.

Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.