Add Copy of XP CD to Hard Drive?

[Nucolso]

I recently bought a new pc with Windows XP-SP2 pre-loaded.

My last pc had Windows 98SE pre-loaded (never upgraded), and it came
with a backup copy of the entire CD loaded onto the hard drive. Over
the years, this hdd-resident backup copy has proven quite useful, e.g.
during hardware installation where I'm asked to add a file from the
original installation disk (i.e., there would be no need to actually go
to the installation disk). I also seem to recall that I was able to
locate lost/corrupt system files identified by System File Checker
files by using this backup copy.

My XP pc, on the other hand, did not come with such a backup
pre-loaded.

My question: Should I load a backup of the XP CD onto the hard drive?
Thanks in advance for any pros, cons, cautions, special considerations,
etc. (One reason I'm wary is that the XP CD contents seems to look
very different, i.e. it's mostly individual files instead of the series
of CAB files that dominated the Win 98 CD contents.)

 

[Jim]

I recently bought a new pc with Windows XP-SP2 pre-loaded.

My last pc had Windows 98SE pre-loaded (never upgraded), and it came
with a backup copy of the entire CD loaded onto the hard drive. Over
the years, this hdd-resident backup copy has proven quite useful, e.g.
during hardware installation where I'm asked to add a file from the
original installation disk (i.e., there would be no need to actually go
to the installation disk). I also seem to recall that I was able to
locate lost/corrupt system files identified by System File Checker
files by using this backup copy.

My XP pc, on the other hand, did not come with such a backup
pre-loaded.

XP has much the same functionality in the /i386 folder.

My question: Should I load a backup of the XP CD onto the hard drive?
Thanks in advance for any pros, cons, cautions, special considerations,
etc. (One reason I'm wary is that the XP CD contents seems to look
very different, i.e. it's mostly individual files instead of the series
of CAB files that dominated the Win 98 CD contents.)

It isn't necessary to copy for the CD to the hard drive.
Jim

 

[milsabords]

I recently bought a new pc with Windows XP-SP2 pre-loaded.

My last pc had Windows 98SE pre-loaded (never upgraded), and it came
with a backup copy of the entire CD loaded onto the hard drive. Over
the years, this hdd-resident backup copy has proven quite useful, e.g.
during hardware installation where I'm asked to add a file from the
original installation disk (i.e., there would be no need to actually go
to the installation disk). I also seem to recall that I was able to
locate lost/corrupt system files identified by System File Checker
files by using this backup copy.

My XP pc, on the other hand, did not come with such a backup
pre-loaded.

My question: Should I load a backup of the XP CD onto the hard drive?
Thanks in advance for any pros, cons, cautions, special considerations,
etc. (One reason I'm wary is that the XP CD contents seems to look
very different, i.e. it's mostly individual files instead of the series
of CAB files that dominated the Win 98 CD contents.)

Pro: retrieve the convenience that you had before
Con: the space it takes on HD.

Fred

 

[Steve N.]

I recently bought a new pc with Windows XP-SP2 pre-loaded.

My last pc had Windows 98SE pre-loaded (never upgraded), and it came
with a backup copy of the entire CD loaded onto the hard drive. Over
the years, this hdd-resident backup copy has proven quite useful, e.g.
during hardware installation where I'm asked to add a file from the
original installation disk (i.e., there would be no need to actually go
to the installation disk). I also seem to recall that I was able to
locate lost/corrupt system files identified by System File Checker
files by using this backup copy.

My XP pc, on the other hand, did not come with such a backup
pre-loaded.

My question: Should I load a backup of the XP CD onto the hard drive?
Thanks in advance for any pros, cons, cautions, special considerations,
etc. (One reason I'm wary is that the XP CD contents seems to look
very different, i.e. it's mostly individual files instead of the series
of CAB files that dominated the Win 98 CD contents.)

Copy the i386 folder from the CD to the hard drive. Start, Run, type in
regedit and hit Enter. Navigate to:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]

And change:

SourcePath from D:\ to C:\

Steve N.

 

[Steve N.]

Pro: retrieve the convenience that you had before
Con: the space it takes on HD.

Fred

The space occupied by the i386 folder is only 539MB. Not a lot of space
to worry about these days.

Steve N.

 

[Guest]

One way to do it is to copy the i386 directory from your cd to the hd that's
the way i did it at one company i worked at so i didn't have to carry a xp cd
around with me.

 

[Bob Eyster]

Look under the Windows directory and see if there is an i386 directory. If
there is there's no need to copy the CD to your HD.


Bob Eyster

 

[Nucolso]

I recently bought a new pc with Windows XP-SP2 pre-loaded.

My last pc had Windows 98SE pre-loaded (never upgraded), and it came
with a backup copy of the entire CD loaded onto the hard drive. Over
the years, this hdd-resident backup copy has proven quite useful, e.g.
during hardware installation where I'm asked to add a file from the
original installation disk (i.e., there would be no need to actually go
to the installation disk). I also seem to recall that I was able to
locate lost/corrupt system files identified by System File Checker
files by using this backup copy.

My XP pc, on the other hand, did not come with such a backup
pre-loaded.

My question: Should I load a backup of the XP CD onto the hard drive?
Thanks in advance for any pros, cons, cautions, special considerations,
etc. (One reason I'm wary is that the XP CD contents seems to look
very different, i.e. it's mostly individual files instead of the series
of CAB files that dominated the Win 98 CD contents.)

Copy the i386 folder from the CD to the hard drive. Start, Run, type in
regedit and hit Enter. Navigate to:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]

And change:

SourcePath from D:\ to C:\

Steve N.

Thanks for your reply and to everyone else who replied. Very helpful.

But now I'm a little confused for a few reasons. First of all, the
new pc does already have some folders named i386 on the hard drive, but
the largest one is in C:\Windows\Driver Cache and is only 78mb. Then
there are another 22 i386 folders (some empty) in
C:\Windows\system32\Reinstallbackups\<number from 0000 to 0022
here>\Driver files. These 22 folders add only another 2.3mb, and they
are apparently all related to drivers.

So the 500mb i386 folder from the installation disk is not already on
the hdd.

Re the registry modification you suggested: On my Win98SE machine,
which came with an installation-CD backup on the machine, the key you
refer to (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup] )
has a SourcePath value of "C:\WINDOWS\options\cabs".

On the new machine with XP-SP2 pre-loaded, the SourcePath value is
blank, but I also have two "ServicePackCachePath" keys. One has
the value "c:\windows\ServicePackFiles\ServicePack Cache". The
other has the value "D:\" Is this latter key the one you are
suggesting I change to "C:\" after copying the i386 folder from
installation CD to hdd? Also, please explain why the registry change
is necessary. I thought I would be browsing to any of the backup
components manually, if ever needed. Thanks much.

 

[Steve N.]

Nucolso wrote:

I recently bought a new pc with Windows XP-SP2 pre-loaded.

My last pc had Windows 98SE pre-loaded (never upgraded), and it came
with a backup copy of the entire CD loaded onto the hard drive. Over
the years, this hdd-resident backup copy has proven quite useful, e.g.
during hardware installation where I'm asked to add a file from the
original installation disk (i.e., there would be no need to actually go
to the installation disk). I also seem to recall that I was able to
locate lost/corrupt system files identified by System File Checker
files by using this backup copy.

My XP pc, on the other hand, did not come with such a backup
pre-loaded.

My question: Should I load a backup of the XP CD onto the hard drive?
Thanks in advance for any pros, cons, cautions, special considerations,
etc. (One reason I'm wary is that the XP CD contents seems to look
very different, i.e. it's mostly individual files instead of the series
of CAB files that dominated the Win 98 CD contents.)

Copy the i386 folder from the CD to the hard drive. Start, Run, type in
regedit and hit Enter. Navigate to:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]

And change:

SourcePath from D:\ to C:\

Steve N.

Thanks for your reply and to everyone else who replied. Very helpful.

But now I'm a little confused for a few reasons. First of all, the
new pc does already have some folders named i386 on the hard drive, but
the largest one is in C:\Windows\Driver Cache and is only 78mb. Then
there are another 22 i386 folders (some empty) in
C:\Windows\system32\Reinstallbackups\<number from 0000 to 0022
here>\Driver files. These 22 folders add only another 2.3mb, and they
are apparently all related to drivers.

So the 500mb i386 folder from the installation disk is not already on
the hdd.

Re the registry modification you suggested: On my Win98SE machine,
which came with an installation-CD backup on the machine, the key you
refer to (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup] )
has a SourcePath value of "C:\WINDOWS\options\cabs".

On the new machine with XP-SP2 pre-loaded, the SourcePath value is
blank, but I also have two "ServicePackCachePath" keys. One has
the value "c:\windows\ServicePackFiles\ServicePack Cache". The
other has the value "D:\" Is this latter key the one you are
suggesting I change to "C:\" after copying the i386 folder from
installation CD to hdd? Also, please explain why the registry change
is necessary. I thought I would be browsing to any of the backup
components manually, if ever needed. Thanks much.

"i386" folders are a common name for system as well as program files for
various reasons. For this purpose ignore them.

The file structures and registry entries are very different between
Win98 and XP, what applies to one does not apply to the other.

Leave the service pack files paths alone. Edit the SourcePath key to
read C:\ after you copy the i386 folder to the root of drive c:. The
reason for this is in case WFP (Windows File Protection) or SFC (System
File Check) finds corrupted, missing or invalid system files it will not
prompt you for the XP CD but read them from the C:\i386 location.

Steve N.

 

[Bob Eyster]

The reason you want to change the reg key is so windows will find the i386
folder automatically. I for one change it manually, when it ask to insert
the CD I point it to the i386 folder. My i386 folder is in the root of C:

If you do not have a i386 folder that's 500+ MB in size than go ahead and
install the folder from the CD to your HD.

Bob Eyster

I recently bought a new pc with Windows XP-SP2 pre-loaded.

My last pc had Windows 98SE pre-loaded (never upgraded), and it came
with a backup copy of the entire CD loaded onto the hard drive. Over
the years, this hdd-resident backup copy has proven quite useful, e.g.
during hardware installation where I'm asked to add a file from the
original installation disk (i.e., there would be no need to actually go
to the installation disk). I also seem to recall that I was able to
locate lost/corrupt system files identified by System File Checker
files by using this backup copy.

My XP pc, on the other hand, did not come with such a backup
pre-loaded.

My question: Should I load a backup of the XP CD onto the hard drive?
Thanks in advance for any pros, cons, cautions, special considerations,
etc. (One reason I'm wary is that the XP CD contents seems to look
very different, i.e. it's mostly individual files instead of the series
of CAB files that dominated the Win 98 CD contents.)

Copy the i386 folder from the CD to the hard drive. Start, Run, type in
regedit and hit Enter. Navigate to:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]

And change:

SourcePath from D:\ to C:\

Steve N.

Thanks for your reply and to everyone else who replied. Very helpful.

But now I'm a little confused for a few reasons. First of all, the
new pc does already have some folders named i386 on the hard drive, but
the largest one is in C:\Windows\Driver Cache and is only 78mb. Then
there are another 22 i386 folders (some empty) in
C:\Windows\system32\Reinstallbackups\<number from 0000 to 0022
here>\Driver files. These 22 folders add only another 2.3mb, and they
are apparently all related to drivers.

So the 500mb i386 folder from the installation disk is not already on
the hdd.

Re the registry modification you suggested: On my Win98SE machine,
which came with an installation-CD backup on the machine, the key you
refer to (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup] )
has a SourcePath value of "C:\WINDOWS\options\cabs".

On the new machine with XP-SP2 pre-loaded, the SourcePath value is
blank, but I also have two "ServicePackCachePath" keys. One has
the value "c:\windows\ServicePackFiles\ServicePack Cache". The
other has the value "D:\" Is this latter key the one you are
suggesting I change to "C:\" after copying the i386 folder from
installation CD to hdd? Also, please explain why the registry change
is necessary. I thought I would be browsing to any of the backup
components manually, if ever needed. Thanks much.

 

[R. McCarty]

Be sure to modify the value of the Key "CDInstall" to 0, found at:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

The reason you want to change the reg key is so windows will find the i386
folder automatically. I for one change it manually, when it ask to insert
the CD I point it to the i386 folder. My i386 folder is in the root of C:

If you do not have a i386 folder that's 500+ MB in size than go ahead and
install the folder from the CD to your HD.

Bob Eyster

Nucolso wrote:

I recently bought a new pc with Windows XP-SP2 pre-loaded.

My last pc had Windows 98SE pre-loaded (never upgraded), and it came
with a backup copy of the entire CD loaded onto the hard drive. Over
the years, this hdd-resident backup copy has proven quite useful, e.g.
during hardware installation where I'm asked to add a file from the
original installation disk (i.e., there would be no need to actually
go
to the installation disk). I also seem to recall that I was able to
locate lost/corrupt system files identified by System File Checker
files by using this backup copy.

My XP pc, on the other hand, did not come with such a backup
pre-loaded.

My question: Should I load a backup of the XP CD onto the hard drive?
Thanks in advance for any pros, cons, cautions, special
considerations,
etc. (One reason I'm wary is that the XP CD contents seems to look
very different, i.e. it's mostly individual files instead of the
series
of CAB files that dominated the Win 98 CD contents.)


Copy the i386 folder from the CD to the hard drive. Start, Run, type in
regedit and hit Enter. Navigate to:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]

And change:

SourcePath from D:\ to C:\

Steve N.

Thanks for your reply and to everyone else who replied. Very helpful.

But now I'm a little confused for a few reasons. First of all, the
new pc does already have some folders named i386 on the hard drive, but
the largest one is in C:\Windows\Driver Cache and is only 78mb. Then
there are another 22 i386 folders (some empty) in
C:\Windows\system32\Reinstallbackups\<number from 0000 to 0022
here>\Driver files. These 22 folders add only another 2.3mb, and they
are apparently all related to drivers.

So the 500mb i386 folder from the installation disk is not already on
the hdd.

Re the registry modification you suggested: On my Win98SE machine,
which came with an installation-CD backup on the machine, the key you
refer to (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup] )
has a SourcePath value of "C:\WINDOWS\options\cabs".

On the new machine with XP-SP2 pre-loaded, the SourcePath value is
blank, but I also have two "ServicePackCachePath" keys. One has
the value "c:\windows\ServicePackFiles\ServicePack Cache". The
other has the value "D:\" Is this latter key the one you are
suggesting I change to "C:\" after copying the i386 folder from
installation CD to hdd? Also, please explain why the registry change
is necessary. I thought I would be browsing to any of the backup
components manually, if ever needed. Thanks much.

 

[Steve N.]

Be sure to modify the value of the Key "CDInstall" to 0, found at:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

I've never yet encoutered a situation where that was needed, but thanks
for the tip.

Steve N.

The reason you want to change the reg key is so windows will find the i386
folder automatically. I for one change it manually, when it ask to insert
the CD I point it to the i386 folder. My i386 folder is in the root of C:

If you do not have a i386 folder that's 500+ MB in size than go ahead and
install the folder from the CD to your HD.

Bob Eyster

Steve N. wrote:

Nucolso wrote:


I recently bought a new pc with Windows XP-SP2 pre-loaded.

My last pc had Windows 98SE pre-loaded (never upgraded), and it came
with a backup copy of the entire CD loaded onto the hard drive. Over
the years, this hdd-resident backup copy has proven quite useful, e.g.
during hardware installation where I'm asked to add a file from the
original installation disk (i.e., there would be no need to actually
go
to the installation disk). I also seem to recall that I was able to
locate lost/corrupt system files identified by System File Checker
files by using this backup copy.

My XP pc, on the other hand, did not come with such a backup
pre-loaded.

My question: Should I load a backup of the XP CD onto the hard drive?
Thanks in advance for any pros, cons, cautions, special
considerations,
etc. (One reason I'm wary is that the XP CD contents seems to look
very different, i.e. it's mostly individual files instead of the
series
of CAB files that dominated the Win 98 CD contents.)


Copy the i386 folder from the CD to the hard drive. Start, Run, type in
regedit and hit Enter. Navigate to:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]

And change:

SourcePath from D:\ to C:\

Steve N.

Thanks for your reply and to everyone else who replied. Very helpful.

But now I'm a little confused for a few reasons. First of all, the
new pc does already have some folders named i386 on the hard drive, but
the largest one is in C:\Windows\Driver Cache and is only 78mb. Then
there are another 22 i386 folders (some empty) in
C:\Windows\system32\Reinstallbackups\<number from 0000 to 0022
here>\Driver files. These 22 folders add only another 2.3mb, and they
are apparently all related to drivers.

So the 500mb i386 folder from the installation disk is not already on
the hdd.

Re the registry modification you suggested: On my Win98SE machine,
which came with an installation-CD backup on the machine, the key you
refer to (
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup] )
has a SourcePath value of "C:\WINDOWS\options\cabs".

On the new machine with XP-SP2 pre-loaded, the SourcePath value is
blank, but I also have two "ServicePackCachePath" keys. One has
the value "c:\windows\ServicePackFiles\ServicePack Cache". The
other has the value "D:\" Is this latter key the one you are
suggesting I change to "C:\" after copying the i386 folder from
installation CD to hdd? Also, please explain why the registry change
is necessary. I thought I would be browsing to any of the backup
components manually, if ever needed. Thanks much.

 

[Nucolso]

Steve N, Bob Eyster, R. McCarty:

Thanks for the followup info/advice. Now I should be set to go.

Rick

 

[Bob Eyster]

Thanks for the follow-up. I hope we were of some help.


Bob Eyster

 

[Steve N.]

Steve N, Bob Eyster, R. McCarty:

Thanks for the followup info/advice. Now I should be set to go.

Rick

You're most welcome.

Steve N.