Windows XP Pro troubles

[Cobra412]

Yes Golfer. One question though before I say absolutely. Is that a newer revision of the XP Upgrade? Basically did you buy it recently from the store? Some of the original revisions of the upgrade disks were not capable of doing a load this way is why I ask. If it's a fairly recent version then you'll be fine.

[Golfer]

It was delivered two days ago.  It has service pack 2 if that means anything.

[Golfer]

I have a reinstallation CD from my dell laptop (The desktop i'm fudging with now is a Dell 8100)...

Will that do?  I'm upgrading from "home" to Professional then.  The box says it would be ok.

[StarOfAfrica2]

You are fine, just make sure the CD  you borrow is not an upgrade version itself.  Wont work.  You need a full install version of Win98SE or WinME or Win2k.  I dont think Win95 qualifies after thinking about it.  Could be wrong.

[Golfer]

the CD I have is a "REinstallation" cd with dell computers.  Will it work?  I'd like to know before I erase my hard drive.  Thanks!

[Cobra412]

Okay you should be perfectly fine by loading it this way. Like I said previously though I would setup your cdrom to be the first device that the system looks at when looking for an OS. Once you go to do the first reboot during the installation cycle you can change your bios back to it's original settings and reboot. It will immediately go back to where it left off during the load process.

I say this because I don't want you to worry that if you interfere with the installations reboot that it won't continue loading. You can change your bios settings back and reboot and it will start where it left off during the installation process.

[Cobra412]

Star or someone else may be able to help you there. I've never tried it personally with a reinstallation package disk that comes with Dell, Gateway or Compaq pcs.

[StarOfAfrica2]

As long as you can put the CD in your drive and see the Windows directory and the .CAB files, it should work fine.  If you cant, it probably wont work.  There are different sorts of "restore" CDs.

[Golfer]

Thank you for all the help and suggestions.  I've decided that I'm not recent enough with working with computers and their basic OS's to do this with any real confidence.  I'm "outsourcing" to my father's crew.  He's a bigwig and heads up an IT Security & Compliance division for a big company and his guys said they'd get it done.

They oughta...I got a few of them their jobs, ya know the reformed hacker types  They can do things with computers that make me cringe...I'm glad they're on my team.

[SkyWolf]

Originally posted by Golfer
I just upgraded from Windows ME to XP.

 

Hey... a bit off topic... but is there any AH benefit to moving from XP Home to XPPRO?




Woof

[StarOfAfrica2]

Not that I know of.  Unless Home doesnt have the Administrator tools that Pro does.  Even then its a bit iffy if you really get a benefit.  For gaming anyway.

[Clifra Jones]

Originally posted by SkyWolf
Hey... a bit off topic... but is there any AH benefit to moving from XP Home to XPPRO?




Woof

None, The only real difference between home and pro is that home cannot be joined to a Windows Domain (Network of Windows Computers). If you only have one computer it's not worth the additional cost.

[Macfeegl]

tech support rule. Windows upgrades suck. They always have and always will.
Trying to overlay old windows system files with new ones and then keeping your old settings and applications is not something happy. Me is 9X, Xp of whatever flavor is NT. Not the same at all. Not the same dlls, ocxs, drvs.

Do yourself a big favor.

make sure you have @ least 256 megs of ram, or go down to your lcs buy enough to get you to 256 minimum (512 is much better) and get a real copy of xp for about 80-100 bucks. Not a fraggin up(F&$*up) grade.

You'll be ever so glad you did.

[bj229r]

Another thing with upgrade vs. wipe-itand-start-from-scratch,  is that MANY programs/devices use completely different drivers, or completely different versions altogether,  for XP than for '98. (XP disk quite likely hasnt got these, and the wrong ones will get plunked in their place)  What I did was buy a completely new 80 gig hard drive (only $65.00 on tigerdirect), installed XP on that, and left the old hard drive as drive D:...when I couldnt get new ATA drive to work, I just went into bios and told it the '98 drive was the #1 (later found out that ATA drives have special drivers ya insert when XP install inquires about SCSI, etc)