Someone Please Help Me! XP Pro Upgrade

[Thi3f]

Today I found my copy of Windows XP Pro Upgrade that I bought for my laptop maybe two years ago. I thought why not upgrade my computer to Pro instead of continuing to use Windows XP Home. When I went to install the upgrade my installer hung on Installing Devices. So I unplugged everything from the computer except the mouse, keyboard, and graphics card (My only monitor plug). No luck. I began to panic realizing all of the emails, programs, papers and other assorted things on my hard drive. I googled and found many people had the same problem. The solution was to use a a windows install disc and use recovery mode. Sounds good except that when I tried to batch spuninst.txt my computer tells me that there is no such directory or it is missing. I am now stuck with a computer that boots into Windows XP Pro installer and little more. Any help would be greatly appricated esp. any that doesn't involve reformatting.

[Metrogirl]

My way of dealing with this would be to pull the HDD from the machine, fit a new HDD and install Windows onto that. Then when it's all running properly, take your original HDD and add it to the machine - a USB to IDE adapter would be the easiest way to go if your machine is a laptop (not clear from your post). With luck the files will still be intact on your original HDD so you can copy them over.

 

If you can't afford a new HDD, take your drive to a friend's machine and attach it as a secondary drive - he may be able to access your valuable files for you.

 

I don't know enough about the upgrade process to know if it trashes the MBR or partition table, but if you can't see your files on the original HDD when it's mounted as a secondary drive, you may have to resort to a recovery program to rebuild the system information. There are several out there if you search Google.

 

A little tip - 'Someone Please Help Me!' is sort of poor etiquette in a title, many people won't read the post as a matter of principle. Try to use something less emotive and more descriptive, it's a small point but it helps

[tripleboot]

An XP upgrade CD from home. Seriously if your wanting to install pro you need to do a fresh install and if you can't do that with your CD or DVD you have then don't mess with it. You could remove the HDD but if your needing to delete and clean your paritians just use Acronis or Partitian Magic. Your hanging on those devices on the upgrade install because its an upgrade. Don't mess around doing that in my opinion. Headache with lots of conflicts.