XP MISTAKE.....WOOPS

XP MISTAKE.....WOOPS
Need help please.
new acer with xp home.
i tried installing xp pro and this is what happened.
I booted from legal copy of xp pro and told it to format the 100gb partition and install xp pro onto it.
I didnt touch the 5g hidden partition with system image on it in case i wanted to revert to original OS.
Anyways........the next day I attempted to go back to the original OS XP Home as a test and obviously i dont have the recovery utility in windows anymore but more so the alt f10 doesnt work anymore either?
I press alt f10 and nothing happens during startup.
It wont allow me to go back to xp home.
I didnt remove or alter the recovery partition but there must be other files required on the main 100gb partitition that the unit needs to recover outside of windows.
I put back in xp pro but am now concerned that i cant get back to my original os.
Has anyone installed xp pro and been able to revert back to original OS which came with the laptop?

 

When you first power up the Aspire one, hit F2 to access the Bios settings. In there, you can change the hard drive boot order, to boot off the recovery partition first. Hope this helps

 

hard drives and partitions ae the same
you cannot chose to boot to a specific partition in bios, or i would have it that way on all my hackintoshes rather than some complicated tri bootloader sequence for vista xp os x and windows7

 

Couldn't you just have run the upgrade within XP home using the XP pro CD? This way, it will install the extra files to make your home a pro (since both are basically identical). There is no need to reboot, format and re-install unless you totally screwed up your windows partition.

(am I right guys? )

* don't some models come with a recovery DVD too? I havent tried anything yet as I just ordered my new Acer One and I'm waiting for it to arrive... omgomgomg

 

from what I know, no recovery dvd, that's why someone has made one and posted a torrent to it.
Rory

 

My alt f10 has never worked either (as far as I know)

I was able to boot into the recovery partition using Ranish partition Manager on the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD). Download the UBCD ISO or install it to usb. Boot into it using an external CD drive or boot from USB. Select the ranish partition manager from, i believe, the file system tools menu. Once in the partition manager, use your arrow keys to move the the recovery partition, and i believe you hit 'B' to flag the partition for booting. exit out, reboot, and it should boot up into the recovery partition.

I did all this the other day and it worked with no problems. As long as you haven't touched that particular part. you should be able to use this tool to boot into it. I am sure there are 100 other linux based bootable partition tools out there that would do the same.

Anyway, i hope this helps!