hi all,
i have gotten in my hand windows 64 pro. installation disk. unfortunately the only computer i can install it on is my one and only laptop. As from the horrors of my past experience, i am a little doubtful.

now, if i install it. i lose the factory restoration set up by the company (gateway). this is because the F11 (recovery options) stop showing during the start up. my question is, as all the recovery data is stored in d drive (which is not getting formatted), i should be able to format again and come back to the initial settings which is windows xp home.

but if the operating system is upgraded, will it allow the system to downgrade to windows xp, or not?

as i have already created the rescue disk. will i be able to force the installation from there ?

what do you guys think? is it worth the risk?