atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories xp pro upgrade

I upgraded my laptop from xp home to pro. I originally did only the upgrade on the existing file. I had a nightmare of missing, corrupt and un-registered .dll's. I then re-installed pro as a new install on the existing file. But this left a lot of garbage from all of the old apps. I had a new and clean version of xp pro but with a lot of un-usable folders taking up space. I've manually deleted file after file, used the disk clean up and still have 30 gig of used territory.

So, now I went to re-install xp pro, this time I was going to re-format the c: partition. Start over like a brand new machine. But when I get to that point in the install I don't have the choice to format the partition. I tried to boot strate from the xp pro disk on the cd-rom but this machine goes directly back to boot from the hard drive. I've checked the boot sequence and confirmed the cd is in front of the hard drive. This lap top is a Presario 2500. I hit the 'esc' key during boot to manually force the cd to boot but with no luck. It just boots from the hard drive.

This should be simple. Just choose 'L' to reformat the partition. I just don't have that choise.

What am I missing here? I just need to get this stinkin thing formated!

Are you using a standard XP Pro installation disk? or an OEM? Are you deleting the old partion before trying to get to the reformat option? You have to delete the old, creat a new, and then format.

It's a standard out of box upgrade disk. I tried to delete the partion but it won't allow me to because the temp installation files are on it. The disk is currently using a single partition and 8 meg of unpartioned space.

Do you still have the XP home disc? If so, you can use that to blow away the partition. Then, power off, slap in the Pro disc and you should be good to go. It will complain about not finding a previous installation and ask you to "prove" you're upgrading by inserting the home disc for a moment.

Borrowing a home disc from a friend will also work.

I've got the original home xp sp1 disk that came with the laptop. It will not allow me to reload xp home because it says it's an older version. And again when I try to force a boot from the cd drive it still just boots from the c: drive. Frustrating.

1. put pro in cdrom
2. boot to bios, set cdrom as first boot device, reboot
3. follow steps for new install, follow steps to delete partition
4. Create partition and format, it will begin the install process there after.
5. it will also ask for a previous version of windows, place home version in cdrom and let it detect
6. should be good to go.

I have set cdrom as first boot. This stupid pressario just won't boot from it. It just continues to boot from the c: drive. I tried to boot from the xp home disk, the pro disk and even a windows 2003 server standard edition disk. No luck. Arrrhhhggg! Having said all that I think I'll try to boot from a wk2 disk.....

Sounds like you might need a boot floppy if the CD is not booting. The Windows upgrade CD probably won't boot as I'm guessing it doesn't have boot files included. I may be mistaken on this, but it seems to make sense.

The original CD you are trying, is this a Compaq (or HP?) recovery CD? I haven't used one recently, but I do recall Compaq PCs/laptops had their own way of wanting these things done. That was before they were purchased by HP, so this may have changed.

Another option for cleaning the hard drive would be to use system tools from the hard drive manufacturer. You might have to pull the hard drive out to determine who this is. Each manufacturer makes boot disk utilities for doing this. Of course if you are still unable to install the OS after this, you would leave you in a serious bind, so this would proabably be only for a last resort.

I have the original xp home sp1 disk and a documention library disk. I there a seperate 'recovery disk'? Would the recovery disk be the only bootable disk for this machine?
That would explain this boot trouble.

Well I scoured through all my disks and docs. I couldn't find a 'recovery CD'. But I did find some of the original documentation. I looked under the recovery procedures. It instructs you to power up with the OS CD in the cdrom drive then press any key (when prompted) to boot from the cdrom(normal procedure as you would expect nothing speacial here). This machine simply does not give that choice to boot from the cdrom at start up. It won't boot from the cdrom drive. Other than that the cdrom works perfecty, no trouble is indicated with the driver.

Have you tried disabling all other boot sources in BIOS, if that's possible? Not sure if this will help, but it may be worth a try.

You may also want to update the BIOS. You should try surfing to www.compaq.com to check for support/drivers for your Presario. There are a number of models in the 2500 series, but perhaps you can find a BIOS update that may help.

The long link below might help you search for updates:

https://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc...oduct=425566&dest_page=solveCategory

If you bought a retail upgrade, this will definitely be more than adequate to as boot source. Its still a full version, just looking for a previous version to run.

Something else is going on with the drive.

Compaq (and some others) frequently use a proprietary version of installation, reflected on the disk they give you with the computer; thus if you have to reload from the original disk, it reloads the way the factory wants it to. These versions aren't always like the retail or regular MS OEM versions. I remember that Compaq always had their recovery/install disk create a secondary partition for temporary and recovery files. Best bet is to borrow a CD from a friend (NOT Compaq, HP, Gateway) and try using their XP Home disk as the underlying license for your upgrade. Their disk SHOULD allow you to remove existing partitions.

Any questions, e-mail me and I'll try to help.
Bill

Thanks for all of the input. I did have one idea. I think I'll partition the unparditioned space (this is the revovery space Rover88 is talking about), install a copy of pro on that. The from there I should be able to format the partitioned c: drive. I then should be able to install the home xp and upgrade to pro from there.

It sure is a long walk for such a short distance.

Perhaps a good time to do a hard drive upgrade as well. You can start with a fresh hard drive and get more space.

Do you have a floppy drive?
You might find something on bootdisk.com to help you.

It would not allow me to format the unformatted partition. I don't have a floppy for the laptop. I did consider a hard drive but if this won't boot from a CD now I don't want to have the same trouble with a blank HD. So, I opted for a whole new machine and I gave the laptop to the my kids. Some battles cost more in time than are worth it.

If I happen to run across a new HD or a floppy drive, I may consider going another round. But for now I'm back in buisness with a new HP with an Intel core 2 T5200 1.60 GHz and 2 gig if ram. Wide screen, bla, bla, bla..... It absolutley kills the compaq and for about the same amount I paid for the Compaq 3 years ago.

Thanks again for all the help!

Not a bad way to go. I still have my old Micron PC Pentium Pro 200. I keep it in the basement and let the kids bang around on it. They like the old Atari emulator I installed on it some time back.
Happy computing :-)

Are you sure the CD drive is good? If it won't boot to any CD, it sounds like the drive is bad. That would also cause errors trying to upgrade from within windows.

The 8 Meg unformatted space is normal, for some reason every computer I've formatted with w2k or XP has that, and it won't let you format it.

Get a win95 or win98 boot disk, run fdisk, delete the non-dos partition, then try from the CD again.

If your hard drive is an IDE hard drive do the following.

1) Take your desktop machine. Get an IDE standard to Ide micro converter. (Most PC Supply stores have them).
2) Put it in as a secondary hard drive on your desktop

3) Format it.

4) Copy the I386 folder from the CD to the hard drive.

5) Power down the desktop and remove your master hard drive. Put your laptop hard drive in as a primary.

6) Boot up and load XP pro until it comes to the point of restarting system in 15 seconds.

7) At this point power off the PC and remove the laptop hard drive. Put it back into the laptop.

8) Boot the laptop off the hard drive. When it ask for the XP disk direct it to the C:\I386 folder and it will complete the installation.

It takes a little longer this way but keeps you from having to find a good CD ROM if that is the problem.