XP - Home to PRO

stay with Home or move back to PRO?

Received my computer back from shop and noticed (a day later) he loaded XP Home as OS by accident, it should have been PRO. Called my local builder, he's leaving town for 10 days. Said I should do a straight install, but said 50/50 chance I would lose everything. Currently have Home activated with no original disks, have original PRO disks with "Product Key and Product ID numbers ". When my computer was new with PRO, came with SP1 installed, but builder is not sure if SP1 is on my original PRO disks. Have 2 days of "tweaking / program installing" on the computer since getting it back. Have 40 GB of data/stuff with only a CD burner - no DVD burner. Have never installed any OS, so will be looking for a lot of hand holding.

 

As you have the Pro disk (and licence), then you may as well stay with Home for a while as you really only need the disk for repairs and some other system utilities.

The difference between Home and Pro are minor for the average user, but Pro is the prefered out of the two, so I would keep current backups on CDR/RW of data files, settings, Favourites, drivers and programmes etc and look to do a reformat down the track more or less at your leisure.

You can use this time to gain advice such as what Tony has provided. Do a search on installing XP on the Net (and this BBS). You will find a lot of step by step easy to follow guides available.
You could also dual boot Home and pro. but if you only have one partition then you would need partition magic or similar, to partition the drive within your current windows install.

Definately go with XP Pro but there is no immediate hurry.

 

Someone tell me if I'm wrong, but isn't XP Home to Pro an upgrade, and can be installed to the same folder as an in-place upgrade, which in most cases retains all your data? Dennis, it should say on the cd if it has SP1, and if it doesn't you could always slipstream one.

 

Thanks guys for your suggestions....

noahdfear...
but isn't XP Home to Pro an upgrade, and can be installed to the same folder as an in-place upgrade, which in most cases retains all your data.....
Currently have Home activated with no original Home disks.
Do they ask for original disk during the "upgrade process "?
The only original disks I have are PRO.

should say on the cd if it has SP1...
No "SP1" marking/info on PRO disk. Does have a part number (X08-33951),
if part number changed per SP1 inclusion.

Upgrade or format / install ... common sense says backups. Will have to wait until DVD burner is available (couple of weeks). 40 GB a bit much to put on CD's.

 

Dennis: I don't believe that you will need to prove original install of home if you have a full, not upgrade CD of Pro. Also, you should order the XP update disc from MSFT if you haven't already, pop it in right after OS install, it will do the service pack plus all security updates except a couple of more recent one.

I don't think you need to boot from the XP Pro CD to do the "upgrade install ", Just pop it in the CD drive while home is running, click install, choose upgrade, & see what happens next. Install will let you choose where to put it. You can still opt out of the install if you see something you don't like.

Normally I would agree with the Clean Install recomendations, but in this instance, that is basically what you have of home, so upgrade should not cause problems.

If you have 40gigs of data, I would suggest you get another hard drive, slave it and use it for backup of data files. Lots cheaper than DVD writer and one heck of a lot faster. Free program to do this is Karen's Replicator. Will sync drives, files, folders faster than you can blink.

It is a very good idea to backup to removable media, but slow and expensive. If you use DVD-RW for this, it will take 10 disks and a couple of hours.

On slaved drive, with Karen's Replicator, a couple of minutes.

Check out NewEgg and/or Tiger Direct for HDD prices.

And wait and see what replies this post generates.

Have fun:

Martin

 

Dennis,

Just noticed that 120GB drive in your sig. Is that thing partitioned? Data on a separate partition? If so, it won't be touched when upgrading. You could even do a format and clean install of the OS partition.

 

martinr121
Just pop it in the CD drive while home is running, click install, choose upgrade, & see what happens next.
Every time I read this phrase, it sends a "puckering sensation" to my lower body anatomy.

you have 40gigs of data, I would suggest you get another hard drive, slave it and use it for backup of data files. Lots cheaper than DVD writer and one heck of a lot faster.
This is good advice. Every time I see the $99 / 120 GB specials, my mouth starts to drool. I would like to have both. HDD for speed and convenience, DVD for catastrophic / offsite. With 7 kids / 1-X / 2 homes, the $ is always the lame duck in the family.


noahdfear
Just noticed that 120GB drive in your sig. Is that thing partitioned?
Sorry to say, no. Keeping the OS alone on C makes very good sense. "JSS3rd ... Long Island Jim" had a technique via TweakUI to automate exe / data installs to a non C: environment (posted somewhere on wBBS). Will have to get up to speed in the art of managing multiple HDD/partions.


PeteC
or better still with SynchBack - still working perfectly - basically no overhead
Have a few days in with program.. the options / features in this program are awesome. Still can not get "schedule" to work. Will elaborate in appropriate thread.

 

I know that puckering feeling. But I meant see if it will update w/o reformat and w/o asking you for prior installation CD. If not, just click the exit button or whatever F key it tells you to to abort. If it will update install without asking for prior CD, as it should if you have full version. Will probably ask for Product Key and I'm sure reactivate. It should save all installations and data if it goes this way.

When did you say that tech would be back?

Martin

 

How did the builder "mix up" the OS install? Whose disks did he use? If there is another activated XP Home comp out there, you could have some trouble trying to get updates, etc. Download SP1 and burn it to a cd, before you do your reformat.

Do ALL your back ups, reformat, reinstall correct OS, do SP1, install Internet Security, tweaks and software...sounds harder than it is, and when you are done, your comp will be set up just like you like it!

Check here for more detailed info and screencaps..

Johanna
What did you pay this guy, anyway???

 

Johanna
How did the builder "mix up" the OS install? Whose disks did he use? If there is another activated XP Home comp out there, you could have some trouble trying to get updates, etc.

Record keeping? - Assuming builders work with there "current OS / program install(s) image builds ", then checked their records for correct activation assignment. We've talked briefly once, after I caught the error. He has been out of town since. Will be interesting to see what happens on this months M$ updates. Previous PRO Product Key via ADIA32 view match official label on PC case. Current "HOME" install has a different Product Key number and there is NO official label on PC now. Builder is mid-40, family man, retired from local police department. Part of his business includes contractual "computer forensics - expert witness" for surrrrounding legal / county court systems. I assume, I now have two listed activation keys with M$, one for each, Home and PRO... but not sure. We can make guesses, but I don't know what to expect.