Boot Camp Question

[sapienza9068]

This may be a stupid question... but my brother has the Windows XP Home edition and it is a service pack 2. On the disc, it says "Upgrade" on it. I looked on the internet and the upgrade discs are only $99 where as the other is $200. He swears that he paid $200 for it. My question is this, can I use the upgrade disc to install bootcamp? Is this possibly the other disc, not the upgrade(because the "Upgrade on the disc is the only indication). And if I cannot use it... what is the cheapest windows software that I can buy to install bootcamp?

 

[richard.mac]

give it a try it might work. if you cant boot it or the keyboard doesnt allow you to press "ENTER" in the windows XP installer it probably wont work and you will have to purchase a full license.

 

[Aron Peterson]

This may be a stupid question... but my brother has the Windows XP Home edition and it is a service pack 2. On the disc, it says "Upgrade" on it. I looked on the internet and the upgrade discs are only $99 where as the other is $200. He swears that he paid $200 for it. My question is this, can I use the upgrade disc to install bootcamp? Is this possibly the other disc, not the upgrade(because the "Upgrade on the disc is the only indication). And if I cannot use it... what is the cheapest windows software that I can buy to install bootcamp?

You mean install Windows. The cheapest option is buy an OEM disc.

 

[sapienza9068]

give it a try it might work. if you cant boot it or the keyboard doesnt allow you to press "ENTER" in the windows XP installer it probably wont work and you will have to purchase a full license.

It isn't going to be difficult to get out of nor will it harm my computer?

 

[Aron Peterson]

It isn't going to be difficult to get out of nor will it harm my computer?

Won't harm anything.

 

[richard.mac]

It isn't going to be difficult to get out of nor will it harm my computer?

nope, not if you dont get to the stage where you format the Boot Camp partition and begin installing. if the disc doesnt work you wont get to this stage.

to get the disc out turn off your Mac and start it up while holding the mouse button.

 

[richard.mac]

from Boot Camp Assistant's documentation which i guess is always a good thing to read

so in answer to your question you will have to buy a single full-install Windows installation disc. i would buy OEM as its cheaper as Aron Peterson suggested. buy it from your local computer store or from here. one negative about OEM is it only installs once. After you validate your install, you cant reinstall. so if you think you will need to reinstall you should buy a full license here. (both links are XP Professional but you can buy XP Home if you wish, or even Vista).

 

[Infrared]

This may be a stupid question... but my brother has the Windows XP Home edition and it is a service pack 2. On the disc, it says "Upgrade" on it. I looked on the internet and the upgrade discs are only $99 where as the other is $200. He swears that he paid $200 for it. My question is this, can I use the upgrade disc to install bootcamp? Is this possibly the other disc, not the upgrade(because the "Upgrade on the disc is the only indication). And if I cannot use it... what is the cheapest windows software that I can buy to install bootcamp?

Upgrade discs can be used, I have read. You'd need to create a new
disc that includes all the files from the upgrade disc, and some files
from the disc for the OS you're upgrading from. There are instructions
online on how to do so.