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@afcfan wrote:

What do you mean 'boot to the xp cd'?  It's the upgrade setup process that started the reboot, which then (during the reboot) acted as if I have two environments setup.  The XP Home env, and the new 'XP Pro SETUP' environ.  It defaults to XP Pro SETUP and then says it can't find the CD-ROM.  I'm not doing anything with the CD.  It's still in there from when I started the upgrade prior to it auto-rebooting.

Thanks for your response.

You START the entire process by BOOTING to the PRO CD.  You do not just stick in the Pro CD and start the upgrade.  That creates TWO OS and you've almost completed.

What do you mean 'boot to the xp cd'?  It's the upgrade setup process that started the reboot, which then (during the reboot) acted as if I have two environments setup.  The XP Home env, and the new 'XP Pro SETUP' environ.  It defaults to XP Pro SETUP and then says it can't find the CD-ROM.  I'm not doing anything with the CD.  It's still in there from when I started the upgrade prior to it auto-rebooting.

Thanks for your response.

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@afcfan wrote:

Hello.  I just purchased a XPS system (dual core) last week, but it came with XP Home instead of XP Pro.  It took a long time on the phone a couple days ago to get DELL to send me XP Pro.

 

So, the CD arrived today.  I started the setup process, entered the certification number, etc and it started to do it's thing.  Soon after it wanted to reboot the system.  No problem, I was expecting that.  However, during the reboot it then prompted for either the "XP Home" environment, or the "XP Pro Setup" environment.  Of course, I want to continue with the setup, so I selected that option (which is the default).

 

Then, it looks like it's going to start up and it blue screens on me with something about not being able to find the CD-ROM.  Of course, the XP CD is still in the drive where I left it when it rebooted itself.

 

I can restart and choose the 'XP Home' environment and I'm still using XP Home just fine, but I can't seem to get past this problem with the XP Pro upgrade.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

 

PS.  I've been on hold with DELL support for over THREE HOURS, getting transferred from person to person, each saying "not my department, please hold".  Aarrrggghhh!

 

You need to boot to the XP CD, not just stick it in.

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@afcfan wrote:

Any idea on how to get rid of the 'two os' problem, so I can start by booting from the XP CD?  Or should I just boot from the XP CD now and see what happens?  I imagine I'll have to get rid of the 'XP Pro SETUP' OS at somepoint.

Thanks!

It's easy to get rid of.  However, let's address a different issue.

 

XP Pro is the ONLY OS that you can safely do an in-place upgrade to from Home, but it's still better to do a CLEAN install.  A CLEAN install is when you wipe the entire drive and install Pro, then drivers, then your programs.  If you're prepared to do that, then just boot to the Pro CD, pick the Install path, remove all partitions, make new one(s), and then format them and install Pro.

 

If you'd rather do the in-place upgrade, then take that route.  Go here first and remove the XP Pro Setup first: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q289022&LN=EN-US#Task2

Any idea on how to get rid of the 'two os' problem, so I can start by booting from the XP CD?  Or should I just boot from the XP CD now and see what happens?  I imagine I'll have to get rid of the 'XP Pro SETUP' OS at somepoint.

Thanks!

OK, I'm working on removing the new 'XP Pro Setup' OS.  I've looked at the link you provided and I'm not sure what do do with the 'bootcfg/delete/ID#'.  Here's a copy of my current boot.ini:

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup"

I'm not sure what ID# to use.

Again, thanks for your help.  Sorry for the delay in my response.  I had to leave for a couple hours.  Please bear with me.  Thanks!

(you are so much more knowledgable and helpful that the DELL support staff)

afcfan,

Unless you have a Windows XP Professional Upgrade CD (and I strongly suspect that Dell did not send you an upgrade, but rather a full Professional Edition) you do not have an upgrade option. Your only choice is to do a clean install. If you had an upgrade CD you would have the choice of doing either a clean install or an upgrade.

For a clean install of XP see this.

Hmmm.  So, there's no way to upgrade from Home to Pro without a clean install (even if I don't have an upgrade disk)?

I guess I could ask DELL to send me an upgrade disk instead...

Two more questions:

1)  How do I get rid of this 'dual boot' option?  I don't know how I can use the bootcfg command with the current state of my boot.ini file (as you can see in a previous post, the XP Pro Setup 'OS' doesn't have the same format - not sure what ID# to use.

2)  If I did want to do a clean install, I don't know how to get all the drivers, etc.  DELL doesn't send any CDs, they just have whatever restore partition that stores all that stuff.  I'm not sure how I'd go about a clean install...

Thanks.

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@afcfan wrote:

Hmmm.  So, there's no way to upgrade from Home to Pro without a clean install (even if I don't have an upgrade disk)?

I guess I could ask DELL to send me an upgrade disk instead...

Two more questions:

1)  How do I get rid of this 'dual boot' option?  I don't know how I can use the bootcfg command with the current state of my boot.ini file (as you can see in a previous post, the XP Pro Setup 'OS' doesn't have the same format - not sure what ID# to use.

2)  If I did want to do a clean install, I don't know how to get all the drivers, etc.  DELL doesn't send any CDs, they just have whatever restore partition that stores all that stuff.  I'm not sure how I'd go about a clean install...

Thanks.

1) If the Pro disk is NOT an UPGRADE disk, then a CLEAN install is your only option, and it will remove everything solving your other problem.

afcfan,

You can get all necessary drivers through the Download link in the drop down menu under "Product Support" above the forum.

Your Boot.ini file is a kludge right now, but I think that if you edited it as follows it should work properly:

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

A better bet would be a clean installation of XP Pro.

I guess I'm just afraid to get into the whole clean install thing.  If I were to pull down all the drivers, etc, do I just burn those onto a CD?  When do I run them?

afcfan,

There may be detailed instructions for installing the drivers on your system in the "Reinstall Guide" link in the drop-down menu under Product Support above the forum. It is recommended that you download the drivers you will need and burn them to CD to expedite getting your system back to full capability.

If Dell "traded" XP Home for XP Professional it is highly likely that you received a full version of XP rather than an upgrade version. Dell does stock XP Upgrade CDs but they are available as boxed products rather than stand-alone CDs. Whether a full version would offer the option of upgrading when installing from within XP as you did I cannot say as I have never heard of anyone trying it.