Recovering xp home edition using pro edition

[dantesheaven]

I want to recover my windows home edition using an xp pro cd I got. Is this possible? I have a dell Inspiron 8600. Also why doesn't dell use the hidden partition drive to store prefactory settings on the computer like HP/Compaq. That's pretty useful when u lose ur cd or don't have it with u. Is it a copywrite thing with ms or something? Thanks.

[nihil]

Have you got a Dell recovery CD? I doubt if the XP Pro one will work unless you replace the Home edition with it.

I guess that Dell haven't got quite as far as HP, with their recovery drive. I believe that the deal with MS is to reduce the potential for piracy. In return, they get the OS at a much lower price than you or I would pay for an OEM edition.

Can you do a system restore?

[CybertecOne]

Yea, i would have to agree that using a Pro CD to recover home wont work. however, its worth a shot.

If its problems with the partition and certain areas of the OS, ie, MBR or drivers, then the repair / recovery console should work regardless of which CD. however, no guarantees.

If you cant recover your OS, then with that new Pro CD, why dont you slap that on??


CTO

[dantesheaven]

sorry i should have clarrified. That is what I wanted to do, to do a restore but to restore it to xp. That will work ok?

[djscribble]

no it will not work because the files are different -- home is a limited version of pro (features are stripped out) your best bet would be installing pro, recovering your data, and then possibly doing a clean rebuild so that your machine doesn't act weird (ghosts of previously installed programs in home affecting pro's performance)