Preloaded XP

[JimL]

I got a factory refurb with XP Pro SP3 preloaded but no media. It came with
a sheet telling how to put it back to ground zero via a hidden recovery
partition. Is that the best I can do? Am I forever without media?

 

[philo]

I got a factory refurb with XP Pro SP3 preloaded but no media. It came with
a sheet telling how to put it back to ground zero via a hidden recovery
partition. Is that the best I can do? Am I forever without media?

The recovery partition will do a factory restore..
but it would wipe out your data.
If your drive fails you are left with no way to restore the machine at all.

I suggest getting a second harddrive...
clone your present system to it...
then put it in a safe place after you've tested the imaged drive

 

[Daave]

I got a factory refurb with XP Pro SP3 preloaded but no media. It
came with a sheet telling how to put it back to ground zero via a
hidden recovery partition. Is that the best I can do? Am I forever
without media?

If you know someone who has a generic OEM (System Builder) XP Pro
installation CD, you can make a copy of it for your use. Since these CDs
don't exist with SP3, you can also create your own custom-made
installation CD, intergrating (slipstreaming) Service Pack 3 into it.
Then if you ever need to use it and also enter your Product Key, use the
Product Key from your COA sticker (it better be XP Pro!).

Then again, you can choose to do the simplest thing and image or clone
your hard drive.

 

[Jose]

I got a factory refurb with XP Pro SP3 preloaded but no media.  It camewith
a sheet telling how to put it back to ground zero via a hidden recovery
partition.  Is that the best I can do?  Am I forever without media?

I would just find somebody that has one and make a copy.

It would be fortunate if you can copy an installation CD that already
has SP3 built in (but probably not since those have to be made by
hand), but if you get an original SP1 or SP2 CD, you can make your own
SP3 installation CD and then be the envy of your friend.

It is not hard and a fun project to take an old XP installation CD and
slipstream SP3 into it and make a new up to date installation CD - if
you have some kind of bootable XP installation CD. You may really
appreciate it some day...

Here is one link that tells how to create one from a store bought
system, but I have never tried it and it looks like a lot of work so I
am unlikely to try it:

http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createwindowssetupdisk.shtml

If it works, let us know!

Some say it is not possible:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/can_i_create_my_own_windows_xp_installation_cd..html

 

[Daave]

If you know someone who has a generic OEM (System Builder) XP Pro
installation CD, you can make a copy of it for your use. Since these
CDs don't exist with SP3, you can also create your own custom-made
installation CD, intergrating (slipstreaming) Service Pack 3 into it.
Then if you ever need to use it and also enter your Product Key, use
the Product Key from your COA sticker (it better be XP Pro!).

Correction:

Only Retail CDs don't come at the SP3 level. OEM CDs at the SP level
*do* exist!

 

[Roy Smith]

I got a factory refurb with XP Pro SP3 preloaded but no media. It came with
a sheet telling how to put it back to ground zero via a hidden recovery
partition. Is that the best I can do? Am I forever without media?

No, you can get with the company that manufactured your PC and request a
restore CD. They might ask you to pay a small fee, usually to cover the
cost of shipping and handling.

 

[JimL]

No, you can get with the company that manufactured your PC and request a
restore CD. They might ask you to pay a small fee, usually to cover the
cost of shipping and handling.

I see what you mean, but personally I don't consider a recovery disk to be
"XP media," rather yet another way of eliminating everything I've done up to
the time of using it. Or, as I said, going back to ground zero.

 

[Twayne]

In

I got a factory refurb with XP Pro SP3 preloaded but no media. It
came with a sheet telling how to put it back to ground zero via a
hidden recovery partition. Is that the best I can do? Am I forever
without media?

The best thing to do IMO would be to unhide the recovery partition and copy
all of its contents to DVD. That's the usual suggested practice I've seen
used on the computers that come in for repair here. That way if/when the
hard drive goes belly up, at least you have a way to recreate the hidden
partition. Add a readme file detailing the drive letter it is, and the
command to make it execute, as you're likely to have forgotten it by the
time you need it.
Don't be surprised if you find that the hidden partition contains Linux or
DOS or even some other language; it's the norm.
That becomes the "media", unfortunately. You could, of course, go out and
buy your own copy of XP and install that and to hell with the hidden
partition crap, but ... if it's a media-center computer or there are special
bastardizations done to the system software, you'll lose those of course.
Normally it's a small loss, but worth considering ahead of time.

To add/adjust drive letters:
Start; Programs; Administrative Tools (or Control Panel Administrative
Tools), then Computer management; Disk management. Expand the window so you
can see it all, and look for the drive letter settings, usually under
something like Advanced or similar; I forget the exact name of the link
right now.
On some computers you might have to click "show hidden drives".
Highlight the drive with no drive letter, click "change drive letter" and
add the drive letter. Choose a letter at the other end of the alphabet,
such as Q or Z. Then it'll show up in Explorer, etc. BEWARE, with it
shown, it can easily be damaged by the user/s!! That's why it's hidden.

Twayne

 

[Twayne]

In

If you know someone who has a generic OEM (System Builder) XP Pro
installation CD, you can make a copy of it for your use. Since these
CDs don't exist with SP3, you can also create your own custom-made
installation CD, intergrating (slipstreaming) Service Pack 3 into it.
Then if you ever need to use it and also enter your Product Key, use
the Product Key from your COA sticker (it better be XP Pro!).

Hmm, that's a good idea. YOu'll still lose any
customizations/bastardizations the mfr set up, especially if it's a media
center type machine, but those are seldom much of a loss.
BTW, XP/SP3 is definitely an available item. I have one of them and used
it for this current install.

Then again, you can choose to do the simplest thing and image or clone
your hard drive.

There can be a gotcha here too as I recently learned the hard way. Whether
it was file corruption or malware I never figured out, but a problem that
developed suddenly, required my back-imaging for 6 months to get rid of that
problem and then the machine was slower than it should have been on top of
being seriously out of date. It's like something was date-triggered.
I finally started over and did a complete rebuild from the partitions
onward rather than try to futz around getting the OS right again manually.
Once the OS was in and updated along with AV etc., I just reimaged the rest
of the drives and got back to a nice, fast machine. It paid off to have all
those images on DVD and external drives!
But I'm at a loss to explain how so many images got screwed up. I've
since encrypted the images just to keep prying malware at bay; it's the only
thing I can think of. And yes, my keys certificates are exported & stashed
away<g>. I've also set a task to run image verifications every night plus
sha reports. NOT gonna go through that again if I can help it!

Cheers,

Twayne

 

[JimL]

In

The best thing to do IMO would be to unhide the recovery partition and
copy all of its contents to DVD. That's the usual suggested practice I've
seen used on the computers that come in for repair here. That way if/when
the hard drive goes belly up, at least you have a way to recreate the
hidden partition. Add a readme file detailing the drive letter it is, and
the command to make it execute, as you're likely to have forgotten it by
the time you need it.
Don't be surprised if you find that the hidden partition contains Linux
or DOS or even some other language; it's the norm.
That becomes the "media", unfortunately. You could, of course, go out
and buy your own copy of XP and install that and to hell with the hidden
partition crap, but ... if it's a media-center computer or there are
special bastardizations done to the system software, you'll lose those of
course. Normally it's a small loss, but worth considering ahead of time.

To add/adjust drive letters:
Start; Programs; Administrative Tools (or Control Panel Administrative
Tools), then Computer management; Disk management. Expand the window so
you can see it all, and look for the drive letter settings, usually under
something like Advanced or similar; I forget the exact name of the link
right now.
On some computers you might have to click "show hidden drives".
Highlight the drive with no drive letter, click "change drive letter"
and add the drive letter. Choose a letter at the other end of the
alphabet, such as Q or Z. Then it'll show up in Explorer, etc. BEWARE,
with it shown, it can easily be damaged by the user/s!! That's why it's
hidden.

Twayne

Good stuff. Thanks.