Just got a Dell Inspiron laptop (at work) pre-loaded with XP Home, but we need to upgrade it to XP Pro. We already own XP Pro group license so didn't spend the money to get XP Pro loaded. The problem is that it tells me it won't upgrade because the CD is an older version. It won't boot from the XP Pro CD (I'm guessing because it is an upgrade CD). Help! How do I get this switched to XP Pro?

Just a few posts from the link at bottom:

"The error message would suggest that you have XP Home SP2 installed and that the
XP CD you are trying to upgrade from is an earlier version - perhaps SP1a.
Does the XP Pro box state "SP2" on it?"

"Uninstall SP2 from the Home install and then use the retail Pro upgrade. You
can apply SP2 after you upgrade to Pro."

"Are you sure the XP Professional CD is SP2? I would assume that
most stores still have pre-SP2 versions in stock. And it
certainly sounds like you have SP2 installed, and your XP
Professional Upgrade is without it, so is an older version that
what's installed.

If I'm right that your XP Professional upgrade is pre-SP2, you
have two choices:

1. Uninstall SP2, do the upgrade, then reinstall SP2.

2. Create a slipstreamed version of XP Professional, including
SP2 and use it. See
http://forum.aumha.org/viewtopic.php?t=7262 "

"Sounds like you got an OEM xp cd. OEM upgrade cd's can only do clean
installs and then you use your old windows cd during install to prove you
qualify for using the upgrade version. If you want to do an upgrade install
you need a retail version of xp.(don't be confused as oem versions can be
bought at a retail store)"

upgrade home pro older version