DashAlong said:
Please can anyone tell me how I can produce and maintain a windows
XP operating system recovery CD that contains all the microsoft
updates and service packs I have installed on my PC since purchase.
I do have the original recovery disk provided by the PC supplier
when I bought it.
I am told I need an uptodate recovery disk or some how to have
installed an uptodated operating system on my new hard disk if
suffer a hard disk falure and I need to restore all my data from my
stand-alone backup hard-drive. I am aware that I can obtain details
of all the updates and service packs I have installed on my
computer from microsoft.
Any help will be much appreciated
Well - here is the problem. We cannot tell from your description if the
"original recovery disk provided by the PC supplier" is a full installation
CD of Windows XP or if it is some system that the particular vendor decided
to go with - that actually is more like an image of your system when it was
sold to you. They could do either.
If you have a Windows XP Installation CD - you could keep it up to date by
slipstreaming/integrating the patches. You could even go further and
include other installs on the CD. Unless you frequently redo PCs - this
*may* be a waste of your time.
Your original system recovery CD (no matter what it is) is fine for a
recovery from scratch. You may just want to keep all the patches (SP2 and
post-SP2) available in installable format. For this - you can download them
and burn them to a CD-RW or something.
Slipstream/Integrate the patches and/or start using some other unattended
method (CD/DVD/Network/Cloning/etc) to do your work for you.
You can download each update manually - based off the KB Article number,
etc. That way you can back it up/burn a CD of them in case you need them or
use them to keep a slipstream/integrated (updated) Windows XP CD.
How to use the Windows Update Catalog
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323166
(In order to use the Windows Update Catalog, you must use IE to get the
patches..)
Windows Update Catalog
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/catalog/en/default.asp
(In order to use the Windows Update Catalog, you must use IE to get the
patches..)
Creating an Integrated Installation
http://snipurl.com/el43
Integrate software updates into your Windows installation source files
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828930
Really customize your CD..
http://unattended.msfn.org/
Produce an up-to-date XP Distibution CD
http://xpcreate.com/
AutoPatcher
http://www.autopatcher.com/
AutoStreamer
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=223562
You can see the critical (security and other) patches released for a given
month using the following:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms##-***.mspx
At the end of this line you see "ms##-***.mspx" .. If you simply replace ##
with the two-digit year and the *** with the three character month
abbreviation, you will see the list of "critical" and "important" patches
for that month (since it only happens once a month usually, if you check by
the second Tuesday (wait until afternoon) of each month - you should be
fine) - note that future months will not work.
As an example...
December 2004's patches..
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-dec.mspx
March 2005's patches..
None released.. so that one will fail...
May 2005's patches..
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-may.mspx
July 2005's patches..
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-jul.mspx
Once you get on the page with each month's list of patches.. You can go to
the related KB articles and grab the appropriate files from there.
