Upgrading to Pro from XP Home Edition 1

[grlgeek74]

I am unable to upgrade my system from XP Home to Pro. When I click the setup, I get an error message that says "cannot install this version of Windows on this machine."

These are my specs:

Pentium(R) 4 cpu
2.81 ghz
512 MB ram
XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2

Any idea what might be going on here?

 

[bcastner]

Remove SP2.
The XP Pro version you are trying to use does not have SP2 slipstreamed.

 

[grlgeek74]

Thanks for the advice. I uninstalled SP2, but I'm still getting the same error message when I try to install. Any other thoughts?

 

[bcastner]

It is possible you are trying to use an OEM license of XP Professional. It only allows a clean install, not an upgrade.
faq779-4004

 

[grlgeek74]

OK...another question if you don't mind! I elected to stick with Windows Home edition for now, so I reinstalled SP2, which I had deleted earlier. After the reboot, my machine wouldn't boot Windows at all, saying there were missing files. Figuring something had gotten messed up in the SP2 installation, I tried to reinstall Windows. But during the installation process, it continues getting hung up on with errors about missing files. I can't cancel them the error messages, and I can't stop the installation either. Every time I reboot, the installation just picks up where it left off. I know a fresh install would have been best, and may be my only option to fix this, but I don't have a current back-up of my data and I'm trying to avoid it. Is there anything else I can try?

 

[whosquicklier]

You can try backing up your data with Knoppix. It is a live Linux CD and it boots straight from the disc. If you have a USB thumb drive you can easily back up the data, or you can try and back it up to an online email account or something.

http://www.knoppix.net

is the link

It is completely free and very easy to use. If you have any problems with it at all, just check out the extensive documentation on the website.