XP Profesional to XP Home.

[Guest]

Hello,

On my PC I run WIN XP home Upgrade from Win 98SE.

I am trying to help a friend who has a HP PC which came with WIN XP Home
already installed.

On the side of her computer is a sticker with the XP Home licence number.

Her PC was taken by her son and has just been returned to her.

Upon switching the PC on XP Home is no longer installed but Win Profesional,
this she does not want, unfortunatly she has no recovery disk of any kind.

I recently read that you can use someone elses XP home disk to resolve just
such a problem as this so long as you input the licence number on the side of
her PC and not the licence number that comes with my XP home disk.

My questions are, would I have the same outcome if I used my XP home upgrade
disk, would I need both by 98se and home upgrade disk or am I running foul of
MS licencing laws?

It is not my intention to give, leave or borrow my upgrade disk or licence
number with this lady.

My intention is to get her PC up and running for now.

My next question is, if I can do the above, can I now make her a recovery CD
so in the event of something going wrong in the future she won't need me or
my disks to recover her PC.

Please remember I have only an XP home upgrade disk.

 

[TOAO]

Hi ... First off it wouldn't work using your disk , Those brand name
computer like HP or Dell have an OEM version Windows which is preinstalled ,
Though there is still hope for your friend , She should call HP and ask them
for a replacement disk for her model , They might charge a few dollars for
shipping , Or might be free of charge , either case it isn't much , Give HP
a call

.....

 

[AJR]

You cannot "downgrade" from Pro to Home - would require a new installation.
Do not understand why decision XP Pro definetly choice ocer Home.

 

[Guest]

Thank you very much TOAO for your reply.

I didn't think it it could be that easy.

Indeed it would have been an OEM version of Win XP home installed orignaly
on her PC.

I shall phone HP UK tommorow to ask about a recovery disk, however she
didn't buy direct from HP but via a PC world store in London, do you think HP
can still help in this instance?

 

[Guest]

Hello AJR and thanks for your reply.

Having got her PC back, the copy of XP Profesional now installed on her PC
is an illegal copy.

It does not work at all well and is crashing her system.

If as you say she can not revert back to the previously installed OEM OS,
I'm not sure as to how best to advise her.

Would she have to buy a retail version of XP Home?

She can not find her orignal recovery disk that came with the PC when new.

 

[TOAO]

Hi ... I don't see why not , If she can prove she bought a HP computer with
a bill of sale ? Have her call the place where she bought it from , They
even might be able to help , Its worth a shot , right ?

I hope it works out

...

 

[TOAO]

No , What AJR meant is you can't down grade your computer from pro to home ,
You would have to do a clean reinstallment of your original home , back to
factory setting, Once you recieve your copy( product recovery cd ) from HP ?
Then you can perform the above

.....

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hello,

On my PC I run WIN XP home Upgrade from Win 98SE.

I am trying to help a friend who has a HP PC which came with WIN XP Home
already installed.

On the side of her computer is a sticker with the XP Home licence number.

Her PC was taken by her son and has just been returned to her.

Upon switching the PC on XP Home is no longer installed but Win
Profesional,
this she does not want, unfortunatly she has no recovery disk of any kind.

I recently read that you can use someone elses XP home disk to resolve
just
such a problem as this so long as you input the licence number on the side
of
her PC and not the licence number that comes with my XP home disk.

My questions are, would I have the same outcome if I used my XP home
upgrade
disk, would I need both by 98se and home upgrade disk or am I running foul
of
MS licencing laws?

It is not my intention to give, leave or borrow my upgrade disk or licence
number with this lady.

My intention is to get her PC up and running for now.

My next question is, if I can do the above, can I now make her a recovery
CD
so in the event of something going wrong in the future she won't need me
or
my disks to recover her PC.

Please remember I have only an XP home upgrade disk.

This is still a problem, because the installer on your upgrade CD won't work
with the license key on the computer case. The install types are
different; you need an HP OEM version.

This leaves you with basically three options. All of them will result in
wiping the disk, so if there's any data of value, you need to get it off
before proceeding. Start with the first, then proceed to the other two.

The first option is to reinstall from either the system's recovery disk or
recover partition. Do a power-down restart and watch the screen carefully
as it restarts; there may be mention of launching a restore program.
There has to have originally been one or the other, but it's quite possible
that both are lost.

The second option is contacting HP for a replacement restore disk. It
doesn't matter who the seller was, HP may be able to supply replacement
media at nominal cost. It's certainly worth checking.

The last option is what you'll have to do if the previous two don't work,
and that is to buy a new XP Home license.

If you have a qualifying previous-release Windows CD, you may be able to use
an upgrade disk like the one you have; you do NOT have to install the
previous version first, but you WILL have to format the disk before starting
the install. The upgrade routine would detect the XP Pro version and
refuse to proceed, as it isn't a valid upgrade path. You can format the
disk by booting from the CD and entering the recovery console.
Alternately, get a new hard disk and install to that - this is of extra
value if you can't find a way to back up the data on the old hard drive
first. Put the new one in in place of the old, and do not re-attach the
old one till Setup is fully complete.

HTH
-pk

 

[Guest]

Hello Patrick,

Thank you very much for your response.

I will indeed try option 1 and 2 and as a last resort suggest 3 to her.

Might I ask, if a non OEM retail version of XP home had been installed on
her PC origanly and she had simply lost her OS CD but had made a note of the
the licence number, would what I had read worked remembering I only have a
non OEM retail upgrade of XP home?

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hello Patrick,

Thank you very much for your response.

I will indeed try option 1 and 2 and as a last resort suggest 3 to her.

Might I ask, if a non OEM retail version of XP home had been installed on
her PC origanly and she had simply lost her OS CD but had made a note of
the
the licence number, would what I had read worked remembering I only have
a
non OEM retail upgrade of XP home?

This disk substitution works *if* the install types are the same. The
install keys are tied to the install CD type, not to the CD itself. This
is why Volume License versions allow almost unlimited XP Pro installs from
one license key (unlimited till MS realizes that the key is being abused,
and refuses updates, or blacklists the key in subsequent service packs);
however this doesn't apply to XP Home, which doesn't support VL.

Further, repair installs may only work if the disks' Service Pack level is
the same as the install. SP1 disks sometimes can't repair SP2 installs.

In that case, use something like Autostreamer and the full download of the
latest service pack to create an updated install CD. This will work with
retail disks, but often not with OEM disks that have other updates applied;
this is usually a problem with Dell disks.

After the repair install, you'll still have to download all the other
subsequent updates... which is somewhere in the range of 80 now.

HTH
-pk

 

[Guest]

Hello Patrick,

Thank you very much.

I think I understand what your saying.