Reinstall Windows XP SP1 Manufacturer vs. SP2 CD

[Robert Sharon]

If I should need to reinstall Windows XP at some point after upgrading to
SP2 with a CD from microsoft, will it mean reinstalling with the
manufacturer's CD that contains XP SP1 again first? If so, the SP2 version
would be reinstalled subsequently again.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

If I should need to reinstall Windows XP at some point after
upgrading to SP2 with a CD from microsoft, will it mean reinstalling
with the manufacturer's CD that contains XP SP1 again first? If so,
the SP2 version would be reinstalled subsequently again.

You could, if the manufacturer gave you an actual copy of Windows XP,
slipstream (integrate) SP2 and many other things into the original CD, burn
yourself a new copy and forget all that trouble.
http://unattended.msfn.org/ can help with that.

Your direct question..

If you were to wipe your hard drive and install with a CD that was only
updated to SP1, then you would - in fact - have to install SP2 afterwards
manually or over the Internet (safer to have downloaded the full file and do
it manually.)

 

[Al Romanosky]

If SP2 is currently installed and you had reason to reinstall Windows you
would not be able to do so if your CD did not contain SP2. Attempt to do so
and you receive a message stating that you are trying to install over a
"newer version" and setup will be deactivated. Holds true if you have XP
Home with SP2 and try to upgrade to XP Pro by using a CD without SP2. All
current CDs from Microsoft include SP2. As suggested you can add SP2 to an
XP CD by"slipstreaming" check Microsoft support for instructions.