Check out some similar questions!

Bags · Nov 28, 2005, 01:01 PM

Hello,
I installed XP pro rather than upgrading home. Now I have 2 OS on my PC. Obviously I'd like to simply be running pro and not home. I'd like to get all my settings from home to pro and get rid of home. Can I do this, or should I just uninstall pro and try and upgrade again.
Thanks,
Bags

Nez · Nov 28, 2005, 03:35 PM

Firstly,XP Home and XP Pro editions,are basically the same kernal code.The only real difference,in layman's terms,is that the Home edition is a cut-down version of the Pro one.Now before you start to panic,there's nothing wrong with either version,unless your into Linux like a lot of us,but I won't go there :D.The Pro version is probably more "savy" than the Home one,so I'd use that.Probably your best bet would be to uninstall the Home edition,off your partitioned hard drive.If things go awol,and you end up in a mess,you may have to format your entire hard drive and reinstall just the Pro version,remembering of course to re-activate with Microsoft,or you won't be able to update after 30 days with them (not your anti-virus,or other security programs however).Any valuable data you have stored,and you want to keep,just copy it to a cdr/rw disc,and reinstall later.Yes all the above could be a headache,but not as much as having two versions of Windows on one hard drive.Good luck.

ScottGem · Nov 28, 2005, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by Bags

Hello,
I installed XP pro rather than upgrading home. Now i have 2 OS on my PC. Obviously I'd like to simply be running pro and not home. I'd like to get all my settings from home to pro and get rid of home. Can i do this, or should i just uninstall pro and try and upgrade again.
Thanks,
Bags

Why do you think you have two?

Bags · Nov 28, 2005, 04:32 PM

Thanks for the response.

I know I have 2 because when I turn my PC on it prompts me which OS to run. I currently have my regular home edition on my C drive. And the new pro edition was put on my D drive. Suggestions?

Curlyben · Nov 28, 2005, 06:00 PM

* Boot into Home
* move everything you want to keep off your D: drive i.e. Data NOT windows folder.
* Format D: from within Home (destories Pro install)
* Move you Data back to D:
* Do an in place upgrade on your Home to Pro

You may have to edit your boot.ini to make sure you only have one version of Pro on your system
To get to your boot.ini file
Right click 'My computer'
Properties
Advanced Tab
Startup and Recovery settings
Towards the top there is an edit button, this opens your boot.ini file
You want it to say something along these lines

Originally Posted by Boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

As you can see mine only has ONE OS listed
For C: drive its always "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)"

Hope this helps

ScottGem · Nov 29, 2005, 05:29 AM

Originally Posted by Bags

thanks for the response.

I know i have 2 because when i turn my pc on it prompts me which OS to run. I currently have my regular home edition on my C drive. and the new pro edition was put on my D drive. Suggestions?

That's part of what I was getting at. If you had just said the first part, you might not have had both, just needed to edit boot.ini. But since you chose to to install Pro to your D drive, you need to do what Ben suggested.