Do I have to use a SP2 disk?

[Ted]

I have a 2 year old Dell laptop. It was getting increasingly flaky and
nothing seemed to fix it, so I reloaded the original disk mirror.

That seemed to fix it, but it immediately started downloading a Windows
update as soon as I established an internet connection (which was one of the
things that didn't work before).

The computer came with a system mirror disk and a SP2 disk. I am assuming I
don't have to use the SP2 disk, as the update will take care of that. Is
that correct?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have a 2 year old Dell laptop. It was getting increasingly flaky
and nothing seemed to fix it, so I reloaded the original disk
mirror.
That seemed to fix it, but it immediately started downloading a
Windows update as soon as I established an internet connection
(which was one of the things that didn't work before).

The computer came with a system mirror disk and a SP2 disk. I am
assuming I don't have to use the SP2 disk, as the update will take
care of that. Is that correct?

Sooner or later - it will et SP2 or a future SP that replaced SP2. Yes.
May take several reboots and such.

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
Custom updates.
Everything but hardware is what I suggest.

 

[Jim]

I have a 2 year old Dell laptop. It was getting increasingly flaky and
nothing seemed to fix it, so I reloaded the original disk mirror.

That seemed to fix it, but it immediately started downloading a Windows
update as soon as I established an internet connection (which was one of
the things that didn't work before).

The computer came with a system mirror disk and a SP2 disk. I am assuming
I don't have to use the SP2 disk, as the update will take care of that.
Is that correct?

If that "SP2 disk" is the one that just has the SP2 patches on it, then
using it will save you
a lot of time. The advantage of having SP2 on a CD is that you need not
expose your computer
to potential malware while you are installing XP.
Jim

 

[philo]

I have a 2 year old Dell laptop. It was getting increasingly flaky and
nothing seemed to fix it, so I reloaded the original disk mirror.

That seemed to fix it, but it immediately started downloading a Windows
update as soon as I established an internet connection (which was one of the
things that didn't work before).

The computer came with a system mirror disk and a SP2 disk. I am assuming I
don't have to use the SP2 disk, as the update will take care of that. Is
that correct?

Yes, once you have sp2 installed there are still a lot of needed updates
you may want to go with SP3