XP HOME UPGRADE

Soldato
Joined
2 Oct 2004
Posts
4,362
Location
N.W London
Hi,

I have an xp home upgrade cd.....No operating system on my new built pc....

When I boot from cd and try to install it looks for a previous operating system...

Is there a way around this?

Please help

Thanks
 
aint got one.....just got 1 cd in this pack and its xp home upgrade....

does this mean I cant with the current cd I have?

someone said you could so I wanted to check it out.....but if you try and continue it reloops saying "we did not detect another OS on this system"

what dya reckon?
 
Upgrade discs are preicsely that- they are licenced and intended to only upgrade an existing Windows OS to XP Home. My advice would be to install an older Windows OS first (such as Win95, Win98) and then use the XP Home Upgrade disc, or take it back and get a proper installation copy :)
 
You should be able to insert an old Win9x Cd into the drive when asked and the Home installation will look at that and then continue.
 
but then it will install win9 etc wont it?

i have an xp pro cd can i get away with that, then swap em around at the point at which windows installs?
 
I think you're missing the point here. The upgrade version of Windows is only licsensed to be installed if you already own a previous version of Windows (I think from 98 onwards). It enforces this by checking for a previous version at startup. If you don't have a previous version installed, it asks you to insert a previous version disk. Once it's inserted and it's checked it's there and valid, then you'll be prompted to put the XP disk back in again and the install will be a full clean XP install - it's just a disk check, putting an old disk doesn't mean that the old version will ever be installed.

If you don't legally own a full version of Windows 98 or onwards then you can't use the Upgrade version, and you should return it and get a full retail or OEM version instead.
 
challengedavid said:
thats what i would do

I would keep that to yourself, since it's clearly against the law. Indeed, what's the point in spending money on a "real" copy if you're still going to be in breach of the license?
 
You can only use a retail upgrade version of the OS if you have a version of the OS to upgrade from.
It would be a complete waste of money if you've gone out and bought the Retail Upgrade and you don't actually legally have an OS to upgrade from.
Because your license would be just as legal as if you'd downloaded the OS from some P2P site - in other words totally illegal.

Now if you do already own a legal license for a previous OS you can use the retail upgrade on a totally empty Hard Drive in the same way you would use for example an OEM CD.
This is of course fully legal - with a retail upgrade you are simply upgrading your license, you don't actually have to have the old OS installed first.
It is worth noting that you can no longer use the old OS on ANY PC as it is now part of the new upgraded license.

Run the install as normal.
As soon as the installation program fails to find an OS to upgrade from on your HD remove the XP Home CD and insert the CD from whichever OS you are upgrading from.
Usually Win95 or Win98.
This can be OEM, Retail Upgrade, Retail Full and then tell the WinXP installer to look at the CD drive.
It will spin your old OS CD a couple of times before asking you to put the WinXP CD back in the drive and installation can continue.

All you are doing is upgrading a license but you're only remaining legal if you are using the retail upgrade and you have an OS license you can legally upgrade from.
 
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