Can I recover to XP PRO with XP HOME disks?

I just purchased a 6510gz at circuit city. Therefore, getting help from gateway.com is straight, straight out. The serials don't match the in-house and you can't get past any support without a .com serial number.

I created the recovery cd's. Now I want to wipe out the disk and install xp PRO.

Question: will I be able to restore my applications and drivers from the XP HOME disks?

thanks very much.

 

Hi C.B., yes you should be able to restore the drivers from the Home cd, as far as software, you will lose any applications from PRO that are specific to that system, namely some networking apps like remote access that do not come bundled with Home. But what you CAN do is once your system is setup just the way you like, you can easily create a "slipstream cd" (just google it) that can reinstall everything just the way you like at the time of cd creation. Once you setup XP Pro, look in your control panel under System-Device Manager and look for any yellow "?" or "!", if you do have them, simply pop in one of your original home recovery discs and then double click that "?"/"!" and have it look for the drivers on the recovery cd.
It's a bit time consuming, depending on how many recovery cd's you made (and therefore have to pop in the drive in case the file is on a different disc other than the one currently in the drive) BUT you should fine everything with no probs. Once you are setup with Pro and are happy, make that Slipstream CD!!!!! This way you will have everthing you need to restore PRO Cheers and i hope this helps.

Gateway 7426GX
AMD Athlon 64, 3700+ Processor
1 Gig DDR Ram
100 Gig HDD
Dual Layer Multiformat +/- DVD/CDRW
6x Digital Media Card reader
15.4" Ultrabright screen
ATI Mobility 9600 w/Omega drivers.
1x Firewire, 4x USB 2.0
...And the kitchen sink someplace too

 

Very cool.

Gateway sent me here:
http://www.support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?ref=step&st=browse&platform=10022&model=10527&os=10406&type=

with the understanding that a a 6510gz is the same as an m360. I don't think the whole link made it, though, because there's no "m360" in that search string. Nevertheless the idea is right, get the drivers onto one CD before the switch.

I still need Nero, Money, all the stuff that came with the computer, I'm waiting on an answer from them on how to recover the applications.

So the order of operations is:

1. create recovery disks
2. create driver disks
3. somehow get application installs
4. wipe out hard drive
5. install xp pro
6. install all devices
7. install all service packs
8. make slipstream cd
9. install applications

sound about right?

I see I have a choice of making it bootable (isobuster) or not. I think I'll make the whole thing in case I need to access the hard drive.

thanks!
cb
p.s. if You're Cary Grant then I get to be Rosalind Russel

 

Hey Bogey, try this (it is WAY easier) just out and get a Win XP Pro UPGRADE cd !!!! Tada!!! And this way all you do is just install everything that came with your computer FIRST, and instead of wiping out the harddrive, simply pop in the upgrade PRO cd and .... wait for it .....VOILA!!! You now have XP Pro with SP2 installed along with ALL of your pc specific drivers etc !! I think it would be way easier and the best part??? You can THEN make a recovery cd with the enclosed NERO app that will make you a XP Pro cd with ALL drivers included to boot.

P.S. and for the record, i think Bogart is more alluring than Russel (name wise), but if you MUST insist, then how about you be Deborah Kerr rrrRRRROW!

Gateway 7426GX
AMD Athlon 64, 3700+ Processor
1 Gig DDR Ram
100 Gig HDD
Dual Layer Multiformat +/- DVD/CDRW
6x Digital Media Card reader
15.4" Ultrabright screen
ATI Mobility 9600 w/Omega drivers.
1x Firewire, 4x USB 2.0
...And the kitchen sink someplace too

 

You're right, I can get the upgrade for $60-$249, depending on where I get it. XP home->XP pro is an official upgrade path. I already paid for xp pro so it's kind of a bite if I can avoid it.

If I go that direction I will have to get a disc, though, and I need to get to work.

On our first option, I've found some great stuff for the next person who needs to go to xp pro on a home oem.

Summary:
HARD DRIVE SYSTEM PARTITION
Don't blow away the hard drive partition (logical D: drive) with the system recovery information if there's any chance that the recovery CD's don't work. In fact, keeping the recovery partition for the xp pro OS couldn't hurt, so it's all on the hard drive, no disks required.

RECOVERY CD's
Create the recovery CD's (Programs/Recovery/Recovery Media Creator). Note that you're only allowed to do this once. It's a bizarre restriction, I think, because if the process blows up you're screwed.

DRIVERS/APPLICATION CD's
Create the Application and Driver recovery CD's (Programs/System Recovery/Create My Drivers/Applications CD's)

CREATE BOOTABLE SLIPSTREAM WINDOWS XP PRO DISK
download, install isobuster. use install defaults. (smartprojects.com)
download xp sp 2 to c:sp2xp2.exe
copy xp drive contents to c:xp
note name of xp cd: xp_pro_volume_name
command prompt:
cd sp2
c:sp2>sp2.exe /integrate:c:xp
open legal xp pro cd rom with isobuster
navigate to Bootable CD
in right window, right click Microsoft Corporation.img and extract it to c ut burnable cd in drive
Nero express 6
Data
Make a bootable disk
Add
Navigate to c:Microsoft Corporation.img
Add
Navigate to c:xp and select all files
Add
Finished
Next (select English boot default)
Next (Disc name: xp_pro_volume_name)
Verify data
burn

Once these tasks are done I'll blow away the c: partition (leaving D:, system recovery) to install:
windows xp pro slipstream
drivers/applications installs
xp pro sp2 hot fixes
The recovery partition/cd's are never used in the upgrade, the application/drivers cd's are. I asked gateway about saving my applications on the upgrade and they said if I couldn't get it off the recovery cd to buy them. I already did buy them, and Gateway kindly provided a utility to capture them onto CD's for just this purpose (I believe).

I've written more than I've done, so I'll post again with my success or disaster.

cb

 

Hey! You got it down to a science, please keep us posted on how it went once all is done!! And good luck CB, Cheers!

Gateway 7426GX
AMD Athlon 64, 3700+ Processor
1 Gig DDR Ram
100 Gig HDD
Dual Layer Multiformat +/- DVD/CDRW
6x Digital Media Card reader
15.4" Ultrabright screen
ATI Mobility 9600 w/Omega drivers.
1x Firewire, 4x USB 2.0
...And the kitchen sink someplace too

 

Biggest two developments:

The instructions I've posted for the bootable CD do not create a bootable CD in the sense I imagined. I believe that telling Nero I want a bootable CD puts Nero's DRDOS boot on the CD, a DOS-Prompt type thing. So I would try to create a DATA rather than BOOTABLE CD next time, I just don't know yet.

Second, a vanilla full version of Windows XP Pro IS an upgrade version! I didn't know XP Pro knew how to upgrade XP Home. I didn't wipe out my XP Home disk at all. XP Pro found XP Home and offered to upgrade it. The only glitch was that the XP Pro slipstream CD booted to DRDOS, but I just control-alt-deleted/f10'd/rebooted from hard drive on each XP Pro upgrade reboot and xp pro found its upgrade install and proceeded.

The slipstream rocks! Thanks for that! I only had to put the hot fixes on after the upgrade, sp2 was already there.

more tk,
cb

 

Maybe list an inventory of what is installed? Is there a D: drive with a recovery partition? And does your machine have a CD burner? Because if not then Gateway has to make that stuff available to you on its web site... there has to be a policy for computers that don't have CD burners, there's no way to make disks without one.

 

I have a small problem. I have the same problem - just bought a Gateway laptop with XP Home installed - already have XP Pro disks. My problem - there is no way on my computer to generate a "Driver Application CD" on my computer. That program is not available on my laptop.

Any suggestions?



Kevin M Gaukel

 

There is a "D" partition, but it is encrypted so I cannot access it. Gateway already warned me that if I install XP Pro, I will lose the preloaded applications as they will not replace them. My fear is that if I install XP pro, I may lose access to the drivers permanently as well. Then I have a REAL mess on my hands.

 

They told me that too. They're wrong. Windows XP will act as an upgrade install when it sees xp home. XP Home is on the C partition. The upgrade will never touch the D paritition.

Do you have a CD Burner?
Did you get blank CD's with your computer?

 

Okay,

Sort of in the same boat. I bought a 6020GZ from Gateway. I wiped out the hard drive (including the recovery partition) to install XP Pro (I have the recovery disks). Basically, I hate it being pre-partitioned. I want it set up my way - not their way.

Well, XP Pro loaded and fine and most drivers I was able to find on the recovery disks or their website. However, I wasn't able to find the USB controllers, the "base system?", and one or two other things. The CPU worked fine - on the internet, and the OS seemed fine. But I hate things loading up in Device Mgr w/out the drivers.

So, after reading this - I'm going back to rec disks, restoring the CPU, then making a Drivers CD (didn't know about that) and then go back and try to re-install XP Pro.

Question: XP home and Pro are very similar - will the XP Home OEM drivers work w/ XP Pro?

Thanks
Darrell

 

Darrell,

The issue with the USB not installed correctly could be an issue with the chipset drivers. Since your system is a Celeron M or Pentium M based notebook, you can download the Intel chipset drivers directly form Intel and install those. It should give you a fully functional system. The only issue I could see is if your system doesn't use the Intel USB chipset. I've seen this in other systems, some use SIS or other brands. The Intel chipset drivers won't fix this problem then. You need to findout what USB chipset you have in the system & then install the correct ones. You can try the ones on Gateway's site, that's assuming you didn't use these drivers.

-Vb-

 

Sometimes Windows update works well.