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Upgrading from Windows XP Home edition to XP Professional with Service Pack 2 already installed

I have a laptop with Windows XP Home edition installed. I decided to upgrade to Windows XP Professional, but when I insert the disk, I get the following error:

"Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD.

Warning: If you decide to delete the newer version of Windows that is currently installed on your computer, the files and settings cannot be recovered."

My suspicion is that since I have already installed Service Pack 2, while my CD is Windows XP Professional Version 2002 (which does includes Service Pack 1), the installer will not upgrade.

Does anyone know a way of upgrading to XP Professional without losing any of my settings, programs and data?

SOLUTION

sunray_2003

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poulsena

ASKER

I thought of doing this, but would like to see if there is a way to do this without uninstalling SP2. I admit that I am a little wary of messing up my system by uninstalling SP2.

sunray_2003

poulsena,

Trust me so far I have not seen any issues after uninstalling Sp2..
Let me check to see if there is any known issue like yours

SOLUTION

Fatal_Exception

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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

harmeetgabha

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poulsena

ASKER

Since I would prefer not doing a clean install, I will try making a slipstream cd of SP2. I'll let you know how it goes.

Fatal_Exception

Good idea, and it really is simple to do.. Good luck..

FE

poulsena

ASKER

Well, it worked! I created a slipstream cd of SP2 and was able to install Windows XP Professional. Since I don't presently have any CD burning software to create a bootable disk (i.e. Nero 6), I just burned all of the files to a CD after integrating the SP2 updates and then upgraded the operating system. I didn't need the disk to be bootable since I was just doing an update from XP Home.

It gave me a slight scare when it gave me the "blue screen" when first booting up after installation, but I was able to track that to an error message I received during installation: "The file igfxext.exe on Intel Extreme Graphics Windows 2000/XP Installation Disk is needed." I followed the workaround instructions under Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 830085 and things seem to be working well now. I'm a little confused because the microsoft article states that this problem has only been seen with the Toshiba Satellite 1135 laptop. I have a Dell.

Thanks to everyone for helping me with this!

poulsena

ASKER

I am increasing the point value from 250 to 500 and distributing them as follows:

Harmeet: 250 (for the slipstream idea)
FE: 125
SR: 125

All three of you were big helps!

Fatal_Exception

Thanks..

FE