Downward compatibility

  • Thread starter Thread starter Carl
  • Start date Start date
C

Carl

I purchased an older IBM ThinkPad on which was loaded XP
Professional. I have original XP Home Edition and would
like to operate under my existing and licensed 'home'
edition.

I want to install the home edition. I have now worked
several weeks and have an abundance of user files that I
don't want to lose.

Question: How best can I install my licensed version over
that already installed without having to re-format my
harddrive?

Thanks.

Carl
(e-mail address removed)
 
You can't. However, as an alternative, if you have a large enough hard
drive, you could create a separate partition on that drive, install XP Home
Edition on that partition and then copy the files to the new setup.

This will require third party partitioning software such as Partition Magic
which will not only allow you to resize the current partition to give you
enough room to install XP Home Edition but will also allow you to create a
dual boot menu with its Boot Magic module. NOTE: you will need to do this
rather then use XP Setup for this purpose because letting XP create the dual
boot setup will complicate the process of removing the other OS and
regaining that disk space.
 
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