question about installing xpSP2 after fresh install of xp pro

[Monty]

Hello all. I hope this is the right group to posts queries such as this.
If not please direct me to where I should ask this.
I have a friend who has windows xP pro and he wants to reformat one of his
systems and reinstall xP pro, however he doesn't want to connect his
computer to the net until he has a service pack installed, preferably SP2.
My question is, if I put the full SP2 exe file from microsoft's download
site on to a CD for him, after he installs the main OS which I don't think
has any service pack on that CD, could I then put in this CD that I have
SP2 on and it'll install that, or will I have to dig up SP1, and somehow
get that on his system first before I can proceed with installing SP2?
I'm trying to help my friend and so if possible I'd like to not break his
system, lol.
Any comments on this would be grateful.
Monty From California

 

[H. Debs]

Hello all. I hope this is the right group to posts queries such as this.
If not please direct me to where I should ask this.
I have a friend who has windows xP pro and he wants to reformat one of his
systems and reinstall xP pro, however he doesn't want to connect his
computer to the net until he has a service pack installed, preferably SP2.
My question is, if I put the full SP2 exe file from microsoft's download
site on to a CD for him, after he installs the main OS which I don't think
has any service pack on that CD, could I then put in this CD that I have
SP2 on and it'll install that, or will I have to dig up SP1, and somehow
get that on his system first before I can proceed with installing SP2?
I'm trying to help my friend and so if possible I'd like to not break his
system, lol.
Any comments on this would be grateful.
Monty From California

Yes, you can install SP2 directly after the original WinXP, and you're
right, you should definitely do that while not connected to the
internet.

There is one small advantage from being connected to the internet when
you start installing WinXP:
Supposing you have a version of windows installed (with an internet
connection and a firewall), you can run the WinXP setup from within
that version of windows. It will connect to the internet to get a
newer setup file, copy some files to the hard disk from the CD, the
restart to the usual text mode setup portion which you know, etc...
At which point you disconnect the internet cable.
Of course you can't do this if you don't already have a version of
windows installed, and frankly, I don't know if the setup files it
downloads do make much difference. So it's probably not that big an
advantage.

 

[Monty]

Yes, you can install SP2 directly after the original WinXP, and you're
right, you should definitely do that while not connected to the
internet.

There is one small advantage from being connected to the internet when
you start installing WinXP:
Supposing you have a version of windows installed (with an internet
connection and a firewall), you can run the WinXP setup from within
that version of windows. It will connect to the internet to get a
newer setup file, copy some files to the hard disk from the CD, the
restart to the usual text mode setup portion which you know, etc...
At which point you disconnect the internet cable.
Of course you can't do this if you don't already have a version of
windows installed, and frankly, I don't know if the setup files it
downloads do make much difference. So it's probably not that big an
advantage.

Cool thanks very much. I was pretty sure I could do the install that way
but just wanted to make sure.
My friend and I will hopefully try to get this working tomorrow and as
we're going to totally wipe the drive and install XP from scratch there'll
be no windows to start with.
Again thanks for the response.
Monty from california

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Hello all. I hope this is the right group to posts queries such as this.
If not please direct me to where I should ask this.

Monty,

you picked the best group for this question.

I have a friend who has windows xP pro and he wants to reformat one of his
systems and reinstall xP pro, however he doesn't want to connect his
computer to the net until he has a service pack installed, preferably SP2.
My question is, if I put the full SP2 exe file from microsoft's download
site on to a CD for him, after he installs the main OS which I don't think
has any service pack on that CD, could I then put in this CD that I have
SP2 on and it'll install that, or will I have to dig up SP1, and somehow
get that on his system first before I can proceed with installing SP2?

No, SP2 contains SP1 and all intermediate security patches. You
only want to install SP2.

I'm trying to help my friend and so if possible I'd like to not break his
system, lol.
Any comments on this would be grateful.

There is an even better way---slipstream SP2 into the
installation CD. Then you can install Windows XP including SP2
in one go and even save some disk space, because XP doesn't have
to keep extra copies of the service pack files.

Details are at http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm. Read the
subchapter "How to create a slipstream CD".

Hans-Georg