OS Troubles.

[IAIHMB]

Hey guys, some how I have managed to run in to yet another problem. I finally decided to upgrade to Windows XP Professional Edition. It installed fine but for some reason my old OS, Windows XP Home Edition, did not uninstall. Chances are there is something stupid I missed, is there any way just to remove Home Edition and leave Professional Edition on? Would I be better off reformatting and then installing Professional Edition from the start? Thanks for any advice.

[tekkieman]

It is always better to do a clean install of XP Pro. Even doing this, you will still occasionally get a dual boot screen. This can be corrected by going into MSConfig and testing each boot partition. Delete the one which fails.

[gitreel]

If you just do an upgrade, then your files are still there.

You could reformat.

What do you mean home is still there?

Are you talking about bootup?

If you are talking about the mbr, then home just shows up in the mbr.

It is no longer an actual install because it has been replaced by pro.

You could fix the mbr and wipe the home listing out.

[IAIHMB]

XP Home Edition and XP Professional Edition are both installed. I have no idea how in hell I managed to do that, I am positive I selected update. How would I reformat, I already have my CD drive set to run first on boot.

[tekkieman]

During the install you are given the option to reformat.

Just need to check again, when you boot, you get a screen that lists both XP Home, and XP Pro. If you select XP Home, it still boots?

[IAIHMB]

Yea, Home Edition and Professional Edition will both boot. Are you sure there is an option to reformat from the CD? Everyone says there is, but I have had no luck in finding it.

[tekkieman]

Positive! Sorry I can't provide a screenshot for you where it is in the install screens. Perhaps someone else can....

[IAIHMB]

Ah, thanks, I guess I'll just have to give it a look. Terrible day, and later on I get hit by a hurricane.

[gitreel]

Yes,

Select new install

And you get the partition options.

Wipe out both partitions.

Format the new partition, and install away.

When you get done, pro should be the only one.

[tekkieman]

Ah, thanks, I guess I'll just have to give it a look. Terrible day, and later on I get hit by a hurricane.

Holiday is near Sarasota, isn't it?

[IAIHMB]

Holiday is like a 20 minute drive from where I live. :P Now I've managed to run into another problem. I figured out how to format and I did it, but now everthing is installed on the C, is this bad? Also, Windows XP Professional Edition shows up twice, and Windows XP Home Edition still shows up, even after the reformat.

[tekkieman]

Ok, now go to start/run type msconfig. Go to the boot.ini tab. Click the check all boot paths button. It will let you get rid of the old ones. There should be three listed similar to the one I have highlighted. It will find the right one for you.

[IAIHMB]

Haha, I take it this is where it gets confusing. :P I don't have the boot.ini tab.

[tekkieman]

WTF? Are you using an administrator login?

[IAIHMB]

Yes, I believe I am. :P I'm guessing I just need to modify the boot.ini file? It currently looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

In a second I am going to try and fix it using this again. :P

[tekkieman]

Yes, I believe I am. :P I'm guessing I just need to modify the boot.ini file? It currently looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

In a second I am going to try and fix it using this again. :P

If you leave it through the 30 sec timeout, I assume it boots. If that is the case, the bottom two entries can go as the default is disk(0)partion(1)

[IAIHMB]

I had no idea how in hell it worked, I just cut the last two, saved it, and now all is fine. Now I just have to figure out how to install all these damn drivers. :P Thanks tekkieman

[tekkieman]

No prob. Well done!

[IAIHMB]

Ah damnit. This is where it gets confusing. I was installing driver updates and one driver wanted to install in the C drive. I though nothing of it until it said the C drive was no longer valid. I check, and my C has now become my E and there is a copy of my OS in my slave hard disk. So many problems

[tekkieman]

Ok, looking at your specs, you have a 160G and an 80G. Which is your primary master? Are you creating more than one partition on the primary master?

[IAIHMB]

The 160GB is the master. When I reformatted using the boot CD I used 1 partition on the C drive.

[tekkieman]

There should really be no way for the boot drive to change drive letters. How your OS got on your secondary is probably beyond any of us. Unless the 80 used to be your primary, and you just moved it over when installing the new one. Since you just wiped anyway, I would remove the 80, have only the 160 as the primary master with a single partition, and start again with the reformat/re-install. Get the thing up and running with all drivers before adding the 80 back on.

Just my opinion....

[IAIHMB]

Yah, that's what I think I am going to do. Thanks for your help, hope I can get this done before the power goes out.

[ViRaL1]

Just a thought. Does XP support 48-bit LBA out of the box? Maybe it's not picking up the 160Gb properly during the initial setup phase and sees the 80Gb as the only installable drive.

EDIT: this from M$ Support site

How to enable 48-bit Logical Block Addressing support for ATAPI disk drives in Windows XP
View products that this article applies to.
This article was previously published under Q303013
INTRODUCTION
This article describes the Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) 48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) support for ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) disk drives that can increase the capacity of your hard disk to more than the current 137 gigabyte (GB) limit.

Note Windows XP does not support 48-bit LBA support unless you are running Windows XP SP1. If you want to use 48-bit LBA support, you must apply Windows XP SP1 or later. Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition already include SP1.

more @ http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

[IAIHMB]

Thanks for all of your help guys, I believe everything is done.

[IAIHMB]

This last question should do it. Would there be any downside to having only 1 partition on my master drive? I was asking people on another message board and they said that windows will try and eat up alot of space. I have a 160GB master drive, should I be worried? Would something liket his be worth doing?

-1 C partition at about 130GB
-1 D partition at about 10GB

Install Windows XP Professional Edition on D and use C for everything else? I'm assuming that stuff such as program files, would end up as D:/Program Files as appose to C:/Program Files? That wouldn't matter anyways, I usually go something like C:/Installed.

[IAIHMB]

Doh, something is acting up. Everytime I go to restart or shut down I get an error saying that

{44C6FB81-KBDWNDCLS-B4F7-11D4-9FDD-0800460222F03}

is not responding. Why would a CLISD show up? I searched my registry and there is nothing registered with that CLISD.

[gitreel]

Why not have just 1 partition? Xp only takes about a gig and a half. What is the big deal? You are making it harder on yourself.

The only reason I have a second partition on my second computer is because
it is a dual boot system with Fedora Core 2/Windows Xp

[IAIHMB]

I really have no idea. I got this from someone on another message board:

There really is no downside to running a single partition other than windows tends to eat up as much room as it possibly can. If you to get the most out of your system speedwise, you should look into ways of partitioning your drive so that the swap file and thinss that are used often are towards the inside of the drive.

That and the fact that my computer was being a little laggy got to me. :P Also, Windows has taken up 6.32GB of 9.99GB ( I wonder how in hell I got an off number like 9.99 .)

[Capmaster]

I really have no idea. I got this from someone on another message board:

There really is no downside to running a single partition other than windows tends to eat up as much room as it possibly can. If you to get the most out of your system speedwise, you should look into ways of partitioning your drive so that the swap file and thinss that are used often are towards the inside of the drive.

That and the fact that my computer was being a little laggy got to me. :P Also, Windows has taken up 6.32GB of 9.99GB ( I wonder how in hell I got an off number like 9.99 .)

There's an easy cure for Windows eating up a lot of HD space without adding a partition. Go into Control Panel>System>Hardware>Advanced>Performance>Setting s>Advanced>Virtual Memory>Change and set your swapfile minimum and maximum to the same amount (1 or 2 times the RAM you have). That way Windows won't be constantly be adjusting the size of the swapfile and fragmenting your HD so much