Delete C: partition or just install new OS over it?

I currently have XP MCE and I want to install XP Pro. I am at the partition screen where it wants me to select the partition to install the OS on. Do I first delete the primary partition where the old OS is installed onto, or do I just install over it? I was confused because it says if you delete the partition you may loose any data provided from the manufacturer. Does this mean drivers and such? And if I just install over without deleting it says installing a second OS is not recommended.





Thank you for your help on this.

Delete C: partition or just install new OS over it?
You lose that stuff either way. Just install over it. Partition over unless it asks you to. (e.g. changing from FAT to NTSF format)
Reply:You dont have to delete it, this will save you time
Reply:It really is your choice, but I don't think that it would be a good idea to install Windows MCE over PRO because MCE is newer then PRO (I don't know why you would want to anyways). And also, for performance, it would be best to do a fresh install. Keep in mind, if you want to do a clean install you loose everything. So, if you need to keep files, move them somewhere else then try it. I would say, if you want you don't care about anything on that computer, just ditch the first OS.





But of coarse, then is a THIRD option, this is if you want to dual-boot, if you don't care to do so, stop reading. To dual-boot would mean that at start-up you would be asked to choose between both versions, you would just choose one and then it would boot that OS. To do so, you would need to download a program like Gparted:





http://gparted-livecd.tuxfamily.org/





This program would need to be burnt to a cd, booted off of like you did for your windows installation. You can use this program to rezise your first partition and make room for your Xp Pro. Then, after that, you can go back and install PRO on the empty space, leaving the first one there. The dual-boot then would be automatically configured for both OSes.





Russell.





P.S Installer over MCE wouldn't just format the drive, it would install the new OS on the same partition, move document files, programs and registry entries to the new OS and move the old OS to C:\Windows.old. But installer over isn't recommended because MCE is newer then PRO. It might not even be able to do it.
Reply:i assume your main drive is c: and is partitioned c: and d: the c drive is where all your main files are right? right! d drive is the backup of all of your original programs that the manufacturer put on your pc in case you have to do a recovery. i am not a 100% sure but i do believe that your drivers for some things might be in d: such as your soundcard drivers but i'm not 100% sure
Reply:You either have to delete your old partition, or have 2 OS's on it. If you do not want to lose any Data i would advise backing everything up onto CD's/DVD's (depending on how big/full your HD is) Doing a clean install of XP Pro would be your best bet, Deleting it first will be fine, and if you try to install over it it will remove the old OS anyway, Before wiping your drive make sure you download and put onto disk all the drivers you need for your networking,graphics card,etc. so you can install them one you have installed XP Pro. I hope this helps, and XP Pro is probably the best MS OS on the market.
Reply:Please clean the stuff of one drive and install XP Pro in that partition (i.e. in D: or E:). This will format that particular partition and it will be dual OS system. You can select the OS at the time of startup. Such that you can use both the flavours of XP.
Reply:If you repartition (fdisk) the drive you will lose all data on the drive...game data, songs, pictures, documents...everything, if you just do the upgrade (over the top as you put it) you will save the data and have the new op. sys. in place. The downside is you will have to install all of the software programs you have been using on your machine, but you will have to do that anyway.





Go slow and read the instructions carefully. I hope you have a full back up (one that you have tried to restore and that works) of the system before you start the upgrade.
Reply:what you can do is put in the disk when it is in the currently running. if you do an upgrade with it it will just re write the files. now if you reboot it with the disk in it.. you can have two OS on that same partion mce and the the other one xp on it. xp should find all the drivers itself when you install it. When done installing go to the device manager and it will show you what ones need to be find.. hopefully this helps :) what i reccomeed if you can delete the partion (but it will delete all your files) and install XP on it.)