Laptop OS question Win XP

[11290]

I am looking at either a Compaq or a Toshiba laptop, both brand new. Both come with Win XP Home. I have a full version of XP Pro that I would like to use on the laptop. Is it possible to "overwrite" Home with Pro or do I just put Pro in the cd drive and reformat the whole disk.

That would be OK with me as there are numerous programs that I do not want anyway on the HDD and that would be a good way to get rid of them. Plus I want to partition the drive anyway.

I thought someone on here before had said that Compaq would only let you format with their recovery disk and that it had to be reinstalled as it came, not with a different OS version. Maybe I am confused about that though.

[bailey]

if you already have xp-home installed on said computer, you would gain nothing by installing xp-pro on it, they are the same onlly differance is some domain networking utilities which most people have no use for.

[Iman74]

You are right 11290, "recovery" CD are designed to put the laptop back to the software condition it was at when you first powered it on. So using an OS cd to format and repartition and getting rid of all that junk, which some of it may cause problems in the future will be gone.

Suggestion, take a look at Dell and IBM Thinkpads as far as laptops go before ordering your laptop.

[11290]

One of my concerns, I just have to do more research of the brands, was whether the "drivers" disk was a separate disk than the recovery disk. I was concerned that the drivers for the on-board items would be on the recovery disk and would make it more difficult to reformat.

Re Dell: I really only want a relatively basic laptop as I will not be using it for my primary computer and I will be letting my daughter use it when she goes to London this summer for school. After that it will be networked with my desktop so my wife can have one of her own at her desk upstairs.

The main reason for WinXP Pro is, that is what I have on my desktop and I wanted to make them the same. No other reason. I probably could get by with XP Home with no problems but networking seems to be so simple with XP Pro. Have never tried it with one Pro and one Home.

[reboot]

The basic networking components of Pro and Home are identical, so there's no reason to get Pro for the laptop, and it may be more hassle than it's worth.
I would seriously look at Toshiba, Dell, or just about any other as viable alternatives to a Compaq any day.
Get whatever doesn't come with a "Restore disk", but a full OS install disk, and a separate drivers disk.

[Iman74]

Well even it comes with a restore disk you don't have to use it. Dell also supplies drivers cd's with their systems. But you know what, I have learned those are really a waste of plastic majority of the time. Before you all get up in arms let me explain. The reason I say this is by the time you need one, some or all those drivers, you will probably find newer versions of those drivers on the manufactures website that will not have all the bugs that the original drivers may had. What I do when I have to reload a system and I know I will need lots of drivers. I download everything I can think of, then burn it on CD, and I use that for my reload. But once I setup a LAN on my network, the first thing I get working is the nic card and it's connection on my LAN, so that way I can download anything I need or copy it of another PC on my LAN.

Also, I heard good things when it comes to Toshiba laptops. But from a hands on perspective, I think IBM Thinkpads are much more reliable. Dell's and Compaq are durable, meaning they can take a hit.

[11290]

Thanks for all of the good advice. Have to decide this week what I want to do. Probably will go with the Toshiba for now as it will do everything I need it to do. Not wanting to be a "power user" with it.

Gotta go for now. Need ot get back to the "installing a toilet" thread ! !. LOL