XP Pro....upgrade or full version?

J

JAD

New Member
I just bought a sweet new laptop (E1505). The only catch is it has XP Media Edition. I NEED XP Pro in order to be networked at the office. Should I buy the upgrade version or go with the full version and try formatting the computer and installing XP Pro? Thanks for any suggestions!

JD
 
Probably a domain issue...

I'd reccomend formatting, it's almost always a bad idea to use the "upgrade" version of anything...Just reformat and pur XP Pro on. Not like you'll be losing anything anyways.
 
Motoxrdude said:
You can go on the network just fine with Xp media edition just fine. Why cant you?
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I was told be a Dell sales person you needed XP Pro to do any type networking. And I also assumed that due to the fact that my coporate office demands having XP Pro on yuor system to get on the network (but this might have been before XP Media Edition was released?). For example, can you do any networking with XP Home Edition?
 
davidireland said:
Probably a domain issue...

I'd reccomend formatting, it's almost always a bad idea to use the "upgrade" version of anything...Just reformat and pur XP Pro on. Not like you'll be losing anything anyways.
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Dave,

Domain issue?

When and if I re-format (never done it before), do I have to select any specific partition for the OS to load to? Thanks.
 
Some workgroups require a Domain name which XP Media Center does not include, even though its based on XP pro. MCE doesnt have ALL the networking pro does.

But anyways...reformatting is simple. You put in the CD, boot to cd and go through the motions. You DELETE your current partition, create a new partition which will be RAW. You format that raw partition as NTFS file system (not the QUICK way) and then windows is installed ;)
 
davidireland said:
Some workgroups require a Domain name which XP Media Center does not include, even though its based on XP pro. MCE doesnt have ALL the networking pro does.

But anyways...reformatting is simple. You put in the CD, boot to cd and go through the motions. You DELETE your current partition, create a new partition which will be RAW. You format that raw partition as NTFS file system (not the QUICK way) and then windows is installed ;)
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I've never done that before....once I put in the CD ect and go through the motions, will it "guide" me through deleting the current partition, creating the new RAW partition and formatting it as NTFS?
 
Yes, absolutly. Just look at the options available to you on the screen. There will be an option to delete the partition, one to create one, and then you hit enter to format and install. Very straight forward, no worries.

Edit: Sometimes after reformatting though you are missing drivers for things. You might want to know what kind of hardware is in your laptop in case this happens. Just look at your model number of the laptop and visit their website to download drivers.
 
davidireland said:
Yes, absolutly. Just look at the options available to you on the screen. There will be an option to delete the partition, one to create one, and then you hit enter to format and install. Very straight forward, no worries.

Edit: Sometimes after reformatting though you are missing drivers for things. You might want to know what kind of hardware is in your laptop in case this happens. Just look at your model number of the laptop and visit their website to download drivers.
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It's a Dell E1505...so for example I might need a driver for the 256MB ATI MobilityTM Radeon® X1400 video card? Or the networking/bluetooth cards? How would I know if I needed the drivers after reinstalling everything from the CD's?
 
Go to the Dell website, and look for downloads for the E1505. I know the ATI drivers didnt work for me, and i had to get them from Dell.
 
I would just try using the PC with Media Center installed first, before going through the process of loading XP Pro. Yes Media Center does have networking capabilites. Your company probably listed XP Pro way before there was a Media Center, so will be worth the try.
 
m3incorp said:
I would just try using the PC with Media Center installed first, before going through the process of loading XP Pro. Yes Media Center does have networking capabilites. Your company probably listed XP Pro way before there was a Media Center, so will be worth the try.
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Yeah, I found a way to enable Media Center to join a domain. But when I just called the tech guys, they said it's company policy to have XP Pro, they won't support XP Media Edition. Even after I explained to them that Media was basically the same as XP Pro ect....:rolleyes:
 
way2evil said:
did your pc come with any recovery cd's? see if one says drivers cd and just pop it in when you are done
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I haven't received it yet, but I would imagine it would have all the CDs ect. Hopefully they will have the most current drivers on the CD. Thanks.
 
[-0MEGA-] said:
Go to the Dell website, and look for downloads for the E1505. I know the ATI drivers didnt work for me, and i had to get them from Dell.
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Thanks very much for the heads up!
 
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