new Dell - Home to Pro install question

mountainman · Post by **mountainman** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:25 am

Hi folks:

I just got a new Dimension 2400 in my office here at work. It came with the "Dell XP Home" already installed and I'm trying to install XP Pro. We got the MS Software Pack (can't remember the name) with tons of keys for Pro.

Anywho, after I deleted all partitions and then did a quick format and installed Pro, when the PC boots up, it asks me if I want to boot to Home or Pro.

How do I completely rid myself of Home so it only has Pro?

TIA

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:32 am

Apparently you didn't do something properly, but you can easily edit your boot.ini file to remove XP Home from it. To do so, right click on My Computer - properties - advanced - start up and recovery > settings - to edit the start up options file manually, click edit.

mountainman · Post by **mountainman** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 12:20 pm

Yeah, it's in there. I thought I deleted ALL partitions and then I did a quick format. Bah.

I am redoing it after making SURE I deleted all partitions and then did a regular format. If that doesn't fix it, I'm attributing it to being a Dell.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 2:25 pm

Yeah, something wasn't done properly, or there would be no trace of it at all. I've reformatted and reinstall many Dell's, so that shouldn't be an issue.

mountainman · Post by **mountainman** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 2:58 pm

Yep. That fixed it.

Weird.

I have reformatted many computers (2 in the past week) and there was nary a problem. Weird.

Thanks, y'all.

One Sick Tzim · Post by **One Sick Tzim** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 3:50 pm

New one for me too, as I did the same thing without the reformat. Just installed Pro and it wrote itself over Home without any loss of data, and that was on the Dell in my .sig.

Massa · Post by **Massa** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:54 pm

Probably the recovery partition.. they have a wierd way of hiding that.. i got rid of it with partition magic,

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:59 pm

I've had the same problem.

easiest way is to reformat the drive with a scrub and then install windows.

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:59 pm

that recovery partition also inhibits daemon tools from working.

konomi · Post by **konomi** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:54 pm

The absolute best way I have found to deal with DELL add ons, is to order a new Dell without a hard drive. When the computer arrives, install a new out of the box drive. I have had a lot of success doing this. It might cost a few pennies more but I don't get the "hidden" crap or any of Dell's helpful, but useless, tools

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 12:00 am

konomi wrote:The absolute best way I have found to deal with DELL add ons, is to order a new Dell without a hard drive. When the computer arrives, install a new out of the box drive. I have had a lot of success doing this. It might cost a few pennies more but I don't get the "hidden" crap or any of Dell's helpful, but useless, tools

dell uses seagates in most of thier computers.

seagate offers a free zero format tool, so problem solved.

mountainman · Post by **mountainman** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 7:41 am

Thanks for all your replies, gentlemen. This is a great thread for those who want to reformat. Lots of great ideas!

I'm glad it finally ended up working. The crappiest part of the day was waiting hours for SP1 to download/install on that system. (Slow net.)

Blah.

One Sick Tzim · Post by **One Sick Tzim** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 3:12 pm

If you want to avoid having to wait for the horribly long download time for SP1/SP2, take a look at this
thread.