Format XP

[broken xp cd]

I want to format my C drive but my XP CD is damaged and wont read in the
drive. Is there a way to download and burn a new xp disk? I still have my old
key code and packaging,

 

[Bennett Marco]

I want to format my C drive but my XP CD is damaged and wont read in the
drive. Is there a way to download and burn a new xp disk? I still have my old
key code and packaging,

No

 

[John Hacker]

YES. google for it and you will get millions of sites giving you links to
downloads and serial numbers.

 

[Lem]

I want to format my C drive but my XP CD is damaged and wont read in the
drive. Is there a way to download and burn a new xp disk? I still have my old
key code and packaging,

If you have a retail Windows XP CD, see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246

If you have a Windows XP CD that you received from the manufacturer of
your computer, get in touch with that manufacturer for a replacement.

 

[Mark Adams]

I want to format my C drive but my XP CD is damaged and wont read in the
drive. Is there a way to download and burn a new xp disk? I still have my old
key code and packaging,

Will the disk read in another computer? Put the disk in the drive, and if
the install routine starts, close it. Browse the disk; does it look like the
folders and files are normal or will the disk not read at all? If it looks
okay, try making a copy of it with ISO Recorder, Imageburn, or Copy CD
feature of Nero or Roxio etc. I have seen software that wouldn't install from
the original media but did just fine from a copy.

 

[N. Miller]

I want to format my C drive but my XP CD is damaged and wont read in the
drive. Is there a way to download and burn a new xp disk? I still have my old
key code and packaging,

It should be possible. But I have no actual experience, yet. I've got some
clues, and if I can pull it off this weekend, I'll post back next week.

Toshiba Tecra M2-S410, here. OEM install of Windows XP Pro, but the original
owner wiped the recover partition, and lost the recovery CDs. Toshiba no
longer has the CDs available for such an old model, and Windows only sends
you to the OEM manufacturer for support.

 

[thespinneys]

Is there a way to download and burn a new xp disk?

You could be slightly naughty and download a hooky copy, but as you
have a valid licence I don't think and crime would have been
committed.

Regards

Paddy

 

[John John - MVP]

It won't read the drive? As in "it doesn't detect any drives"? I
suspect that there is nothing wrong at all with the XP cd but rather
that you need to use F6 method and a floppy diskette to supply drive
controller drivers to the setup program.

John

 

[N. Miller]

broken xp cd wrote:

It won't read the drive? As in "it doesn't detect any drives"? I
suspect that there is nothing wrong at all with the XP cd but rather
that you need to use F6 method and a floppy diskette to supply drive
controller drivers to the setup program.

Just an observation: I have set up several new computers since April, 2006.
None have had a floppy drive in them. HP Pavilion a1440n, HP Pavilion
m7590n, Acer Aspire X1200, HP Pavilion dv2610us, HP Pavilion {model
unknown}, Compaq Presario 'Q' (CQ009F). All have several USB ports, and card
slots which accept my 2 GByte 'SD' chip; none have floppy disk drives
installed.

 

[Kevin]

Just an observation: I have set up several new computers since April, 2006.
None have had a floppy drive in them. HP Pavilion a1440n, HP Pavilion
m7590n, Acer Aspire X1200, HP Pavilion dv2610us, HP Pavilion {model
unknown}, Compaq Presario 'Q' (CQ009F). All have several USB ports, and card
slots which accept my 2 GByte 'SD' chip; none have floppy disk drives
installed.

You can buy a $5 drive and install it yourself. You don't need a degree in rocket
science to install one yourself. However, floppy drives are not that useful these
days because one can always create a bootable CD/DVD or even create a BartPE NTFS
bootable CD/DVD which can be used for all sorts of DIY systems work.

 

[Paul]

Just an observation: I have set up several new computers since April, 2006.
None have had a floppy drive in them. HP Pavilion a1440n, HP Pavilion
m7590n, Acer Aspire X1200, HP Pavilion dv2610us, HP Pavilion {model
unknown}, Compaq Presario 'Q' (CQ009F). All have several USB ports, and card
slots which accept my 2 GByte 'SD' chip; none have floppy disk drives
installed.

If you only had a CDROM on the computer, you can use this approach.

Take the driver you'd normally provide by pressing F6 (one with
TXTSETUP.OEM at the top level), and "slipstream" it using
NLite from nliteos.com . Then, burn a new CD, with the driver
for the new computer integrated into the CD. Now you don't need
a floppy, as the installer already has the driver.

You can also use NLite for adding the latest service pack, if
that service pack is not already included on the install CD.
So if you had a WinXP SP2 CD, you could feed that to
NLite, download and add the SP3 redistributable file to
it WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe, add the TXTSETUP.OEM
style driver for the hard disk interface, then take the resulting
ISO9660 file, and burn a new CD with Nero based on the ISO.

http://www.nliteos.com/guide/part1.html

I've never used NLite. I've done one slipstreamed CD using
the "Autostreamer" package, but that was a few years back.
Autostreamer has less functions than NLite.

In theory, there is also the USB floppy device, but I've
never tested whether that works or not for this purpose
(F6 drivers). There is an example here, of a potential
technical glitch that could happen...

"A connected USB floppy disk drive does not work when you
press F6 to install mass storage drivers during the
Windows XP installation process"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916196

Lucky me I just checked my USB floppy and it is a
USB\VID_03EE&PID_6901 , so I can use it some day for F6.

Paul