Clean re-install of XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe 1
  • Start date Start date
J

Joe 1

I will be formatting my hard drive due to ongoing
problems with OS crashes that lock up my PC completely.
Unfortunatley, no error report can be sent since I must
do a hard reboot. I have downloaded the new XP upgrade,
(not the problem) and need to know if I must reinstall
all of the older system updates from the past 3 years or
so or can I just install the SP2 download and assume it
has all the older updates included?
 
Joe said:
I will be formatting my hard drive due to ongoing
problems with OS crashes that lock up my PC completely.
Unfortunatley, no error report can be sent since I must
do a hard reboot. I have downloaded the new XP upgrade,
(not the problem) and need to know if I must reinstall
all of the older system updates from the past 3 years or
so or can I just install the SP2 download and assume it
has all the older updates included?
Click to expand...

SP2 includes all previous updates to Windows. You only need to install
that.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP MCE
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.
 
You only need to install the Service Pack 2 update, as it includes all
the previous updates.
 
Joe you only need to install sp2. However, to save time installing both xp
and the service pack you might like to create a 'slipstream' cd of xp. You
can do this if you have the retail copy of xp (the actual xp cd) and the
full version update of sp2 (downloadable from Microsoft or available on cd
from Microsoft - some computer mags are also including the full sp2 pack on
their cover disks.) Take a look at the instructions for slipstreaming on my
website www.freelanceit.glowinternet.net. Click the Win XP Faq button and
take a look at question 83. You will also need a copy of the freeware
software 'autostreamer' (details are on the webpage) After you have burnt
the ISO copy to cd you simply install as normal. What the slipstream has
done is integrated the service pack 2 into the original windows xp
overwriting all the necessary files. You only then need to install the
slipstreamed copy of xp. There is no need to install xp and sp2 separately.
 
John,

Dumb questions coming: I've been interested in slipstreaming for
some time and never found anything "easy" enough to use, but this
recommendation looks pretty good.

-- Do you have successful experience with this autopatcher
program?
-- Is it known to be reliable?
-- How can one "test" it to be certain it works without actually
doing a reinstall?

I can barely read the text at that site it's so small, and
server-controlled, so may have missed it, but I didn't see
anything to answer my questions there.

TIA,

Pop



| Joe you only need to install sp2. However, to save time
installing both xp
| and the service pack you might like to create a 'slipstream' cd
of xp. You
| can do this if you have the retail copy of xp (the actual xp
cd) and the
| full version update of sp2 (downloadable from Microsoft or
available on cd
| from Microsoft - some computer mags are also including the full
sp2 pack on
| their cover disks.) Take a look at the instructions for
slipstreaming on my
| website www.freelanceit.glowinternet.net. Click the Win XP Faq
button and
| take a look at question 83. You will also need a copy of the
freeware
| software 'autostreamer' (details are on the webpage) After you
have burnt
| the ISO copy to cd you simply install as normal. What the
slipstream has
| done is integrated the service pack 2 into the original windows
xp
| overwriting all the necessary files. You only then need to
install the
| slipstreamed copy of xp. There is no need to install xp and sp2
separately.
|
| --
| John Barnett MVP
| Associate Expert
| www.freelanceit.glowinternet.net
| | >I will be formatting my hard drive due to ongoing
| > problems with OS crashes that lock up my PC completely.
| > Unfortunatley, no error report can be sent since I must
| > do a hard reboot. I have downloaded the new XP upgrade,
| > (not the problem) and need to know if I must reinstall
| > all of the older system updates from the past 3 years or
| > so or can I just install the SP2 download and assume it
| > has all the older updates included?
|
|
 
Pop the link I gave refers to a site called autopatcher. Autopatcher is
companion to autostreamer. It is autostreamer you need. Look on the right of
the autopatcher web site near the bottom, I think, and you should see a link
to download autostreamer.
Does autostreamer work? Simply answer Yes. If you have visited my website
you will have seen the instruction I give for using autostreamer. To make
sure the instructions were accurate I had to physically go through the whole
procedure, i.e., inserting my xp cd, copying the sp2 update from my update
cd to my hard drive etc, etc. From when autostreamer started the copying
process to it actually finishing took about 17 minutes. Now that's not bad
going considering it is copying xp files to a temporary folder and then
replacing files with newer files from sp2.
After completion I burnt the resulting iso file to a cd using Roxio. After
the cd was created I created a separate partition on my hard drive and
installed windows xp professional. Everything went without a hitch. When my
machine finally rebooted I had a complete version of windows xp professional
complete with service pack 2.
So to your questions all I can say is it worked fine for me.

Hope this helps
 
Thanks to all who responded. You have saved me a lot of
work and hopefully my odd problem lock-ups will be
history.
 
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