Repair Windows XP Home with Pro CD?

Hi,
I need to do a repair installation for a friend soon, who was running WinXP Home. All I've got is a PRO CD, and he no longer has his Home CD. I need to boot to the CD so I can do a repair install...can I use a Pro CD to repair a Home installation? Or is that going to cause a problem?

Thanks!

 

It will cause a problem, namely with the product key.

You will turn his XP Home into Pro, and his key will no longer work.

 

Hey guys,
I've located an older Windows XP Home CD, which came with a Gateway PC I had some time ago. It's from back in the day when they actually provided you with an OS CD. The person's computer that I need to fix is running Windows XP Home, on a Gateway machine...will this CD work with their product key?

Thanks!

Mike

 

Maybe.

Here is the situation you could run into. gateway, Dell, Hp, Toshiba, etc use an activation method called SLP, or System Locked Preinstallation. The OS doesn't activate over the phone, instead it reads an SLP code from the BIOS itself to activate.

So while it may install, may even accept the key, if it is not the correct SLP media...you won't be able to activate it. It may give you a phone in option, but to date, I've never seen it work on an SLP-enabled machine.

 

If your friend has a backup of C: and system state available to them it is possible. Installation disk and backup must both have same service pack. After you install Windows , restore backup of OS and system state and your in business. ntbackup.exe is not loaded by default on eXPerience Home but is available for installation from a Windows XP Home disk.

 

Hmmm, you know that system state only includes the registry right?

Im doubtful that would fix an SLP problem if it arose being that activation also includes file changes.

 

Can you read the files on the target computer.

If c:\windows\system32\wpa.bak

and

c:\windows\system32\wpa.wpa

are present you can use the gateway cd. Copy these files to floppy.
Do the repai
Replace the two files with the copies off the floppy in safe mode.



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