Windows XP Professional? 10 for best answer?

Question

My Dell PC had the Windows XP Home Edition installed on it. I tried to install XP Professional, and now it says that there is an error, and the 'blue screen of death' is coming up. I cannot access Home Edition anymore as it was in the middle of installing the Professional Edition, and that can be selected as the only option.

How can I fix this? I would be grateful for help.

Answer 1

Had a similar pro trying to upgrade to Xp pro, it said it cant be installed because i already have the newer version installed, this was because Xp brought out the new service packs for Xp home..

What i did I wiped the HDD with 'Boot & Nuke' and then installed pro.

I advise you to re-installed the home edition and wipe the HDD

Answer 2

Use the XP pro diskette and you can boot to it and finish the install it will start over and you will be ok. You might lose all the things on the hdd that you might have wanted. ie pics/music and such but it should install XP just fine. If you are using a upgrade cd you might have to insert a WIndows cd like 98 ro 2000 or xp home and it will validate the upgrade or it might recognize the home version already installed. THanks

Answer 3

Could be a problem with device drivers, hardware or software. This  problem can be solved by uninstalling new software, updating device drivers and making minor configuration changes . From http://fixit.in/bluescreenofdeath.html . You can also run a free registry scan using utilities from http://re7.info

Answer 4

if you installed it " " then you erased the original pro image, so you would have lost the original os. if you didnt format it then you can boot with an xp disk, erase that partition with pro on it and leave home

Answer 5

Try installing Windows Vista

Answer 6

can i buy anything with your 10 points ?or trade it in for something ?

Answer 7

Boot up your computer using the professional cd and try to re-install

Tips:

~check to see if the disk is scratched

~If all else fails get a mac!

Answer 8

Because Dell's PC's are prepackaged systems, chances are it came with a recovery CD (or recovery partition) Which will pretty much ask if you want to restore your operating system (Windows XP Home Edition) If you choose this option it will wipe your entire drive and start from scratch (Like when you first purchased it).

There are four viable options you can try:

1. Restore using the Recovery CD.

2. Is what i call Grafting the OS over the top of itself. (Reinstalling the operating system over a corrupt installation.) Pretty much following through the Windows XP installation then when asked what partition/directory to install to select the same as you already have.  This should regain some functionality to your computer and some programs that don't require values to be written into the windows registry should still work, (I say should as it really does vary on software. Its a hit and miss Procedure)

3. Use a Live CD such as BartPE or Knoppix (Links Below) to recover data and save to a pen drive. then use the recovery disk when you've retrieved all your data. These are cut down versions of operating systems burnt on to CD that boot up before your computers hard drive kicks in (You'll need to switch your CD drive to be the first boot device in the BIOS)

(note: Whilst more user friendly for windows Users with BartPE you will need to follow the instructions on the site to compile your own CD.  Knoppix is precompiled.)

4. Install to a different partition. If you have a second hard drive on your computer. you can install your new XP Pro onto that. After which because one of the main start up files (Boot.ini) has 2 listings, you will see an extra menu and can choose which installation to boot off.