Downgrade XP Pro to XP Home Edition????

I purchased a copy of Microsoft XP Pro from a man at a computer show several years ago, and apparently it is not a good licensed copy because Microsoft will not allow me to download any Service Packs, and tells me that the software does not appear to be a valid licensed copy. The messages tell me to contact the vendor where I purchased the software. I do not know how to get in touch with the man I bought it from.

Anyhow, I want to downgrade XP Pro to a licensed Home Edition I have, but when I try to install the Home Edition I get some message from Microsoft saying I can not upgrade from XP Pro to Home Edition.

Duhh am I just stuck now; I have to wait until Windows Longhorn comes out so that I can do an upgrade. There has to be a way to do this. I just want to reformat my hard drive; I have already backed up all my data.

Any help you can offer would be most appreciated.


Shawn

 

Boot off of the CD to reformat and clean install.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316941

 

I went to my BIOS and changed (or tried to change it) to boot from CD first. After doing this with the CD in the CD drive the computer started normally. I heard the CD spinning but it did not boot from the CD?? I am a computer idiot, and do not understand many of the procedure and lingo...

Shawn

 

Do you have two cd rom drives?

Most computers only boot from the master drive.

 

Yes I do, I tried the CD in both bays, both with negative results. I am pretty sure I set it to the right selection in the BIOS. There were several choice that I was not too sure about, but one said "Something???? CD" and I chose that one.

If I am able to get it to boot from the CD, I will not have any problems installing the Home Edition over the XP Pro version?

Thanks.

Shawn

 

Correct, you can format, clean install.

Don't sweat booting to the CD too much.

Get the setup floppies.

Go to support.microsoft.com and query 310994.

 

Ok,

I shall try it tonight after work thanks for your quick response.


Shawn

 

OK,

I went to Microsoft support and made the bootup disks (6). I used all six bootup disks and on the last one I got the blue screen of death!

Below is the message I received:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

unmountable_boot_volume

Error message

Stop 0x000000ED (0x82AFaA00, 0xx000003f, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

It also said maybe I should run the computer in safe mode, because there may be conflicts with devices and software and some other gobbly goop I do not recall???????

Should I try it again in safe mode, or with as much stuff possible shut down in the system tray.

Nothing ever goes easy for me.


Shawn