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From: David on 21 Mar 2010 22:46
I am trying to reformat a confuser with XP Pro and install XP Home Edition to
make this confuser simple for a Charity to use. The cd doesn't work and I
have the files to XP Home on a flash drive but I cna't get the XP Pro to go
away. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
From: Shenan Stanley on 21 Mar 2010 22:53
David wrote:
> I am trying to reformat a confuser with XP Pro and install XP Home
> Edition to make this confuser simple for a Charity to use. The cd
> doesn't work and I have the files to XP Home on a flash drive but I
> cna't get the XP Pro to go away. Any help would be greatly
> appreciated.

When you install Windows XP (Home or Professional) you should get to a point
where it asks you *where* you want to install.

If you do not - your media is messed up.

If you do - here is what you should do...

1) Delete any/all partitions that are currently there.
2) Reboot.
3) Start the installation again and when it asks where to put it - create
the partition(s) you desire and install there.

Worst case - the partitions will seemingly still contain data. Download the
hard disk drive manufacturer's diagnostics CD and use it to wipe the drive
(zero-write) and then start the installation again.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


From: sandy58 on 22 Mar 2010 04:53
On Mar 22, 3:46 am, David <Da...(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> I am trying to reformat a confuser with XP Pro and install XP Home Edition to
> make this confuser simple for a Charity to use.  The cd doesn't work and I
> have the files to XP Home on a flash drive but I cna't get the XP Pro to go
> away.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Looks like you are trying to "downgrade" from Pro to Home Ed. Not
likely.
From: Ken Blake, MVP on 22 Mar 2010 11:36
On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:46:01 -0700, David
<David(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> I am trying to reformat a confuser with XP Pro and install XP Home Edition to
> make this confuser simple for a Charity to use. The cd doesn't work and I
> have the files to XP Home on a flash drive but I cna't get the XP Pro to go
> away. Any help would be greatly appreciated.



*If* the flash drive was created properly and is an image of the CD,
and *if* you can boot from the flash drive, this is what you need to
do:

Boot from the flash drive, and follow the prompts for a clean
installation. When you do that, the first thing it will do is format
the hard drive. What is already on the hard drive, or even whether
there is *anything* on the drive, doesn't matter at all.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
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