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XP Pro installation

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by nyguy1060

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I have a Compaq Presario C304nr that came with XP Home on it, along with a bunch of other stuff. I would like to put XP Pro in it. My question is; there are two partitions on the hard drive. C which does the normal functions, and D, which is a recovery program. Should I delete the recovery drive, then format the c drive? Also one of my friends tried this on his Compaq and when he went to install Pro he got a message that there was no hard drive recognized. What is that all about? and how do you make the hard drive recognisible?

17 replies

by oh smeg

It is quite OK to delete the Recovery Partition.

As for the Computer telling you that it doesn't have a HDD fitted this is because the HDD is a SATA Drive and needs drivers to install the OS. On the first Blue Screen you need to press the [b]F6[/b] Key and then insert the SATA Drivers copied to the Root of a Floppy into the A Drive to load the SATA Drivers when prompted.

Col

by noprisoners

Had a similar problem repairing a Compaq.. I think the bios has a hidden bit that is expecting to see the 2nd partition with all it's recovery stuff. It would not let me replace the HD. Solution.. changed the mobo, ie new bios, all then worked fine.

Steve

by martin.fisher

If you have to ask these questions you should probably leave XP home on there and not make any changes to the computer.

by nyguy1060

I am asking these questions to double-check myself. I am basically self-taught, but had a person teaching me who recently passed away. He told me two things to remember. 1. When you are done with your repairs, you should return the unit looking better( if possible) than when you received it. 2. NEVER let your pride or fear of embarrasment get in the way of knowledge. If you need to ask the most mundane question to be absolutely sure of something, then ask. Those are words I plan on living by, especially since I don't know anyone that came out of the womb knowing how to repair computers and some peoples arrogance at people just learning is appalling. Everyone has the right to ask questions, if you don't want to be constructive, leave them alone, they aren't doing anything to you...are they???

by bbwalters

Wow! It's always a pleasure to read an articulate reply with a consructive sentence! I agree whole heartedly with your sentiments.

by boxfiddler

and reading and learning. The only way to go with these machines is to figure out how to do things yourself. Big company tech support sucks and as often as not they tell you the wrong thing to do.

And it is always good to try to double-check yourself while you are learning. Don't let nits like that one turn you off. We all had to learn all sorts of things by asking, and sometimes asking again.

Just be willing to learn from your mistakes and live with the occasional frustration! :)

edit typo

by aandruli

Don't know this particular model but a lot of manufacturers put a Fat12 partition into sector zero to allow you to choose between normal boot and recovery. You can either leave the partitions alone and install Pro over Home or you have to wipe the drive with a drive wiping program to make sure you blow away the hidden partition.

by david_horn

Firstly, Mr Fisher.. Everybody starts somewhere and it is a little arrogant to make a comment like that. At least he is doing the right thing and asking the question before ! he goes ahead.

Delete the recoevery partition, sure! But if you have any problmesre-imaging the hardrive to a single partition (using XP pro install disc) and or probs when trying to load the OS you may want to recovery back to your home edition.

I would load XP pro on C:\ frist. Make sure your OS is up and all drivers pertaining to your devices work ok and then just reformat the D;\ or reinstall XP pro again and delete the partitions and creat 1.

As for secret codes in the bios for backup or receovery partitions...WHAT!!!???

Bon Chance!

by nyguy1060

Thank you Mr. Horn. I also placed a post to Mr fishers remarks if you would like to review them.

by kostaghus

First of all you have to boot up your system using the XP installation disk.
If you don't know how to do this, let me just tell you it involves entering the setup programme, (that means you will probably have to press the F10 key to reach the POST screen WHEN the computer boots up and subsequently press DEL or F11 or F2, according to the indications on the screen to reach setup).
You will then have to select the option (browse throught the menus but don't change them options if you don't know what you are doing) that changes BOOT ORDER or FIRST BOOT DEVICE. Make sure you select CD ROM or DVD ROM according to what you have on your machine. Then go and select SAVE SETTINGS AND EXIT. When you do that, make sure the installation CD for XP Pro is in the CD or DVD drive. The computer will start and boot from CD (alternately it may show a prompt PRESS ANY KEY TO BOOT FROM CD...- if it does that, just press ENTER). You will subsequently have the distinct pleasure of being presented with the unique blue DOS-like screen of the text driven installation of XP Pro. After a lot of mumbo-jumbo, you will eventually reach a screen where the software asks ON WHAT DRIVE IT SHOULD BE INSTALLED. You can there delete partitions, create new ones or just let them be. My suggestion is that, if your HDD is larger than 20 GB you should divide it in 2 parts. The BOOT partition (C) should be around 10 GB and the rest should be your FILE (D) partition. If you have more than 80 at least 3 partitions are ok. That is safer in the event of software crashes of virus infections. Deletion , creation and formatting of partitions can alternately be done using Partition Magic or FDISK utility from older windows versions (like Win98). You should also be aware that FAT32 is yesterday's format. If more than 10GB are available on the disk go with NTFS. Afterwards it should run OK... If further info needed contact me: kostagh at yahoo dot com.
Good luck! Done this tens of times! Full success each time!

by aljatrad

I assume the hard drive to be 80Gb or larger, and if not I would consider a 160Gb (or bigger) hard drive upgrade to be very practical. You can image transfer the existing C drive to the 160Gb with "Acronis".
I would leave the recovery software on drive D: (image transfer that as well if you upgrade to 160Gb) and create another partition, about half the size of existing C: making three partitions on your hard drive. "C" will be your XP Home "D" will be your recovery for XP Home (and maybe your new partition depending on the size of D:) and the new partition (maybe "F" depending your configuration) will be XP Pro SP2. Use Partition magic 8 or Acronis to partition your hard drive then insert the XP Pro disk and load it onto the partition you created (before) and you should have no problems at all. There is no need to install booting software as XP home and XP Pro both have boot managers in the operating system thus it becomes unnecessary. I have dual booted 98SE and Win2000, then Win2000 and XP Pro SP2, without any troubles (boot manager required for 98SE installations in dual boot configurations) There are many help lines on the net but the best, I use and subscribe to, is "Langalist" now "Windows Secrets".
There is a free version but for about AUD$15.00 per year you get around 46 issues, very cheap and very informative. Acronis suite is image backup and partitioning software all in one and worth the money if you continue with this project.
Good luck
Cheers Allan.

by chained

That laptop has a SATA controller. You need to download the driver from HP's site and put it on an CD or external floppy or something. When you boot to the XP installation CD as it starts you will notice it saying at the bottom of the screen "press F6 to load additional drivers", do it. When prompted point to the drive with the SATA driver. XP will then recognize the drive and you can delete both partitions.

by xm_81

can u please help me and tell me what should exactly be on the CD, or give me the link of the SATA driver so i can download it

by ashby

Some great advice here.

It's a straightforward process - I did a similar upgrade on a Samsung.

A couple of extra ideas if you haven't already done so. Before you start, make a complete back up of both the system partition and the recovery partition. Then check HP's website to check whether there are any specific drivers, etc., for your machine for XP Pro. They may be the same as the ones you already have but some machines have slightly different ones. Wouldn't hurt to download the latest versions anyway.

As far as the SATA drivers are concerned, you may or may not need them - I have an HP ML110 with a SATA drive (only) and my XP Pro CD recognised it immediately - I had formatted it with PartitionMagic before I started.

If you've got enough free space on your hard drive, say 8 GB, I would use PartitionMagic to reduce your current C: drive by that much and allocate a new partition in the space you free up. Then, because I'm cautious, I'd use PartitionMagic again to make the new partition the Active Primary (this will hide your current partition). Then install XP in the new partition, apply any drivers etc. and check out the basic system. When you are happy with it, reduce the old C: drive to the minimum and install your apps on the new Pro system and when you are happy with that, you can delete the old Home partition and add the space to the Pro system.

You can use PartitionMagic to make all these changes to dynamically, though it's good advice to make backups before you do - I've never had a failure but there is always a first time. And it's also good practice to run PartitionMagic by booting from the CD, not from the installed system.

If you don't have enough space to set up an additional partition, you could install your Pro system over the top of your Home system - let Setup reformat the partition but be sure you have a full backup first!

When you are done, as for the recovery partition, if you have the space, there would be no harm in leaving it, just on the offchance you ever want to revert to XP Home - if you sell the machine, for instance.

Take care, one step at a time and good luck!

by ramesh_dadi

Get the WIN XP Pro original cd and install freshly no problems will be their and must get drivers from the internet only or first get the drivers from the net for winxo pro then proceed

by tintoman

I am deeply concerned by what I am reading here.
You seem to be getting so much advice about how to do this but not one single person has suggested that all you need to do is boot your computer to Winows XP home, insert the XP pro disk and do an upgrade to pro.
Thus giving yourself the following advantages
1. You will not need to destroy your revovery partition and therefore you will still be able to return the PC to its factory condition if you ever want to.
2. You will not need to load any SATA drivers because they are already present
3. If the installation does not function properly you can uninstall it
So what's wrong with that option?
And as for Mr Fisher I reckon he's a gurkin short of a big mac

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