Reformatting, installing new version of XP issues (1 Viewer)

[d3vanj]

So I got a copy of Win XP Pro (april '09) and I went to install it on my computer, assuming it would format itself, but it installed Win XP Pro and left XP Home as well. That isn't really where the problem lies though - I start up XP Pro and it doesn't detect any of my drivers. My screen resolution is stuck to 640x480 8 Bit color because it isn't detecting my graphics card or ANYTHING, won't connect to the internet, didn't clear my hard drive - etc. etc.

so I got a driver detecting program on the Home edition and put it in program files, started up Pro edition, went to run it from program files there, and it won't let me run. Is there any way I can detect my drivers without connecting to the internet? Someone help me please.

 

[saintfan-n-alex]

u didnt format when you did the install, so you maybe able to dual boot, the drivers are the same for pro and home, you can do a "update driver" via device manager (devices will be listed as unknown device) - you can tell the drive updating process to search in your other windows\system 32 etc directories to find the needed drivers on your drive.

if you can dual boot, you can check the driver details to see where the drivers for each device are located and then load them from that path

 

[Jtek74]

are you trying to dual boot? Was that your intention from the beginning? Or, did you want to erase win xp home and do a clean, single, install of win xp pro?
Tell us exactly how you want windows set up and we will let you know how to do it and how to install all the drivers.

 

[Saint77]

Your taking the long way around.

Boot to the Windows Home edition. Go online to the maker of the computers'(other motherboard, if its a custom build) website, and look up the model in the support section, and download any drivers you will need. Save them to a CD, flash drive, or whatever you can.

Alternately, if you hav the CDs that the laptop came with, if its a Dell, you should have a Resource CD, which will have the drivers on it. Some other systems include disks with just the drivers on them.

Boot to the cd, delete all the partitions (AFTER MAKING SURE YOU BACK UP ANY OLD FILES FIRST, if needed) then reinstall a fresh copy of XP Pro on a new partition. Once done, and install allt he drivers.

 

[Cajun Mike]

Your taking the long way around.

Boot to the Windows Home edition. Go online to the maker of the laptops' website, and look up the model in the support section, and download any drivers you will need. Save them to a CD, flash drive, or whatever you can.

Alternately, if you hav the CDs that the laptop came with, if its a Dell, you should have a Resource CD, which will have the drivers on it. Some other systems include disks with just the drivers on them.

Boot to the cd, delete all the partitions (AFTER MAKING SURE YOU BACK UP ANY OLD FILES FIRST, if needed) then reinstall a fresh copy of XP Pro on a new partition. Once done, and install allt he drivers.

You know the beauty of Ubuntu is that it recognizes alot of hardware and installs the proper drivers in my case I would say 95% of the time.

I am getting ready to install windows 7 when I get it. My HD died but I had backed up the partition a day before, so I restored to another drive (nero back it) but there are problems from bad sectors

 

[Saint77]

You know the beauty of Ubuntu is that it recognizes alot of hardware and installs the proper drivers in my case I would say 95% of the time.

I am getting ready to install windows 7 when I get it. My HD died but I had backed up the partition a day before, so I restored to another drive (nero back it) but there are problems from bad sectors

Linux Mint is a nice distro for that too. I highly suggest it.