XP Install "HOME over PRO"

[agamemnon]

Recently I had a new motherboard, video card and hard drive installed in my
sony RX 650 PC. The shop that did the work then installed WinXP PRO, I
suppose to facilitate their work as I did not bring my copy of XP HOME in with the pc.
Can I install my copy of XP HOME over the XP PRO?
I had planned to use the "Maxtor"Format Tool to wipe and format my 80gig HD and from there use my Sony rescue set of disks to reinstall XP Home.Does that sound as if it will work?

[phishhead]

yes that will work but why not stay with xp pro?

[Stripe]

I had planned to use the "Maxtor"Format Tool to wipe and format my 80gig HD and from there use my Sony rescue set of disks to reinstall XP Home

Yes, that will work, but why go through the trouble? I would take it back to the shop and have them do it for you.

[Big Booger]

You can just use the XP home CD rom and boot from it (providing it is bootable).

The XP Home CD-ROM will detect that the hard drive already has XP Pro installed, and will advise that it would not install XP Home (a downgrade) unless you select Advanced Options.

Other than that it is a snap to install over XP Pro.


But the Maxtor reformat should do a jim dandy job!

I am with Phish though, why not keep Pro? You have a few extra features with it.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p.../choosing2.asp

[agamemnon]

thanks for the input guys
basically i have two reasons for replacing the pro os 1) possible security update problems at MS site and 2) morally wrong to use someone elses copy.

[rik]

It's kinda nice to see someone with that level of ethics these days...

[Big Booger]

Originally posted by rik
It's kinda nice to see someone with that level of ethics these days...

Yeah, I hear ya.


Well either way you go, it would seem to me that installing home over pro will work flawlessly.

[rik]

Originally posted by Big Booger
[B]Yeah, I hear ya.

Sorry for lapsing back into my "Father Knows Best" mentality...Guess I should take my meds on a regular schedule.

[Big Booger]

Actually there are very few people out there with morals and ethics. Especially when it comes to Microsoft, because most people feel that MS rips off everyone by charging way too much for their products and then they make them very restrictive with each new release..



But I was thinking the dad from Leave it to Beaver , "You know Beaver.."

[rik]

"You know Beaver.."

Yes, I've known Beaver for a very long time...

[joshsiao]

Actually just so that you note, you don't need the Maxtor HD format utility to reformatt your drive. In the XP Home CD, (actually all the XP CDs) when it asks you which partition to install to, you can have the option to delete all the partitions, then you select the unpartitioned free empty space and partition it to the amout you want then click next. The setup will then say that the selected partion is unformatted and it will format it for you. If you enter a partition amount lower than that of the maximum allowed partition, the rest of the space will become free unpartitioned, unformated space which you can partition later with HD partition utilities. I did this only yesterday when I accidentally deleted an important windows file but the computer kept on recognising 2 XP home editions even when I had over-written the original folder. I did it for a clean install.

P.S. I still think that you should stick to Pro. Its better than home. But its all still up for you to decide.