Upgrading Win XP Home Edition to Pro.

I got a PC with a HDD with two partitions, one is the
actual C:\ partition and the other, @ the start of the
HDD, a recovery partition. The OS and some programs were
factory preinstalled, along with the drivers for the
hardware that came with the PC. I would like to upgrade
to windows XP Pro, but also want to keep the programs
that came originaly with the machine and the drivers for
audio, display, etc. Is there a way to accomplish this
task without the need of erasing the HDD, reformate and
intall the new OS (Win XP Pro). The manufacturer of the
PC will not provide info of the motherboard maker, so I
can download the drivers for the sound card (Integrated
to the MB) and video display (also integrated). Has
somebody made this successfuly? I will appreciate some
advice. Thanks!

marion nielssen 3090 wrote:
I got a PC with a HDD with two partitions, one is the
actual C:\ partition and the other, @ the start of the
HDD, a recovery partition. The OS and some programs were
factory preinstalled, along with the drivers for the
hardware that came with the PC. I would like to upgrade
to windows XP Pro, but also want to keep the programs
that came originaly with the machine and the drivers for
audio, display, etc. Is there a way to accomplish this
task without the need of erasing the HDD, reformate and
intall the new OS (Win XP Pro). The manufacturer of the
PC will not provide info of the motherboard maker, so I
can download the drivers for the sound card (Integrated
to the MB) and video display (also integrated). Has
somebody made this successfuly? I will appreciate some
advice. Thanks!

Purchase the Windows XP Professional RETAIL or UPGRADE edition (not OEM) and
perform the upgrade after backing up your data (just in case). It should
work fine, everything should be intact. Know that if you ever use the
recovery partition though, it will revert back to XP Home Edition and you
will have to upgrade again.

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