CABS: eating space or helpful?

[Guest]

My system came with the infamous ME installed; I upgraded to XP as soon as it
was available. Since I had to have ME on the machine to upgrade, I don't know
which CAB files on my depleted C: drive are leftovers from ME and which are
needed for XP. Some of these have creation dates of Y2K, many are zipped with
a .CAB extension. What can I delete safely?

Heck! I don't even know what a .CAB is! I do know that a bunch of them are
mystery .BMP files, tho.

On the other hand, it may be a moot point. My C: may be getting flakey - the
system freezes waaay too often, so I fear I'm in for another round of
formatting and installing anyway. Yeah, The Kat has multiple problems but
doesn't know the source. (I've got McAfee & Spysweeper, so I'm kinda sure it
isn't sinister.)

Speaking of reformatting, is there some way to get a disk of updates from
Microsoft so I don't spend hours trying to get XP updated if I do have a bad
drive? (I do have a disk with SP2, but that's ancient now!) If not a disk, is
there a single file of cumulative updates?

OK. so this is TWO (at least) queries. I'd appreciate any guidance you all
can offer. All I know is that my laptop that came with SP2 installed is
running just fine. My desktop is another story.

 

[Rock]

The Kat wrote:

Speaking of reformatting, is there some way to get a disk of updates from
Microsoft so I don't spend hours trying to get XP updated if I do have a bad
drive? (I do have a disk with SP2, but that's ancient now!) If not a disk, is
there a single file of cumulative updates?

OK. so this is TWO (at least) queries. I'd appreciate any guidance you all
can offer. All I know is that my laptop that came with SP2 installed is
running just fine. My desktop is another story.

No there is no cumulative update disk beyond SP2. If you need to
reinstall XP you don't have to install ME. Just reboot the system with
the XP disc in, then as the installation proceeds it will ask for you to
insert the qualifying media. Insert the ME disk and it will accept
that. After XP is installed, install SP2, then go to the windows update
site and get all the post SP2 updates.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

 

[Kenny]

S
oOme post SP2 updates here:
http://www.microscum.com/postsp2/

 

[Davy]

Hope you are aware if you reformat you will need all the mobo an
hardware drivers which will need to be installed..... wonder why i
hadn't been mentioned..

Dav

 

[Richard Urban]

You do NOT need to have Windows ME installed on your computer to upgrade.
You can install Windows XP to a blank hard drive. You just need the original
Windows ME CD for verification purposes - to prove that you are eligible to
use the upgrade version of Windows XP. The XP install process will ask you
to insert the ME CD for verification.

If all you have is the OEM "recovery" media, it may not be seen as a
qualifying product. In this case, you will have to first recover the
computer to Windows ME - and then install Windows XP as the upgrade.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Guest]

"You can install Windows XP to a blank hard drive." Where was this tidbit of
information back when I first fought this battle?! Enormous thanks. I'll
remember this when I gird for battle.

 

[Guest]

I know I will need drivers. I do have the disks that came with the hardware -
and much of that is new - not what came in the original cow box. (which may
mean there are a lot of obsolete drivers on my disk, too.) Are there any
'hidden' drivers I should know about that won't load from my disks? I did
notice three files named DRIVER5, 6, & 7. If I save those when (not if) I
reformat the drive, will those have all the necessary drivers?

And what is a CAB? (How I get home after a night on the town?) Which cabs
are keeps; which are dumps. How can I tell the difference? It would be really
helpful if the files had less arcane names. Just how much can I deduce about
a file named WIN_22.CAB, NET3.CAB or PRECOPY1.CAB?

And thanks for such a prompt response.

 

[Guest]

Good link. I'll save that one for future reference!