Windows reinstall from OEM installation

[jules]

Is it possible to do a normal Windows reinstall from the files in the
I386 folder on the hard drive of a computer with OEM preinstalled
Windows?

Often, when searching for a fix to some problem or other, I find advice
to reinstall Windows or do a repair install using the Windows XP CD.
But I have never actually come across a computer that had a Windows XP
CD. Only, if I am lucky, an OEM restore CD that will return the
computer to the factory state using a disk image. This is a rather
drastic remedy for many minor, though still annoying, problems.

However, I notice that in the I386 folder there is a WINNT.EXE and a
WINNT32.EXE, which I believe are the files used to start Windows Setup.
Is it possible to execute one of these and perform a Windows reinstall?
I don't want to risk trashing my own setup, which is running fine at
the moment, just to find out.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

winnt.exe is used if it is possible to boot to a FAT32 drive via a 9x floppy
disk - not possible if the drive is NTFS formatted.

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[R. McCarty]

Yes (Qualified) it should work. However, usually the contents of the
source i386 are downstream from your current version. So, to use it
as a source you'd need to slipstream the latest Service Pack into it.
I'd also as a security measure - burn the i386 to a CD-R before doing
any changes to it.