XP Professional to Home Edition

I may as well be completely honest before going any further. I have little knowledge of computers, and up until now have not had a genuine copy of windows XP. I've now bought the XP home edition and wish to install it, but when running the CD, I cannot upgrade because apparently I am running (the copied version) of XP professional (my computer was built by someone else). I've made the decision to go legal because basically, I can't download the new windows media player and watch channel 4 TV. This was too much for me!

So, does this mean I have to completely uninstall the windows version I have and then start again with the new CD, or is there some way of getting around this profession to home edition non-upgrade allowing? Does this also mean I will completely lose everything on my computer, and should think about making a complete back up before I try?

How do I go about it?

Thanks for any help, and i'm sorry if someone has already brought this topic up before, as I know this annoys you!

 

As far as I know, you'll have to format and start over. This would mean losing everything so yes, you'd have to back things up first. I don't think the problem is due to the fact that your OS is not legal though. The problem is due to the fact that you are using XP Pro now and you can't upgrade XP Pro with XP Home regardless of whether the XP Pro is legal or not. What you are trying to do is downgrade the system.

You can upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro but you can't do it the other way around. I don't know of any way around it myself.

Also, you should be aware of the fact that if you do a clean install with an upgrade disk, you'll have to have a Win98 or newer Windows system disk to show it during the install. During the install, you'll be prompted to insert your Windows disk from your previous OS. As I said, Win98 or newer will work as long as it's not an XP disk.

 

Zander, on the other hand installing a second HD install XP Home onto that and then transfer data, would be in my view the easy way out, or I thought if the drive was big enough create a new partition and put a new install onto that wouldn't that work also.
Just a thought