BUILD YOUR OWN WINDOWS XP-SP2 RECOVERY DISK

Last Updated: 10-20-12

Create a folder on your hard drive named “C:\WinXP”.

Insert your Windows XP CD and copy the CDs root folder and all files and directories to “C:\WinXP”.

Download Windows XP-SP2 and save it to “C:\SP2”.

Open a command prompt and type:

c:\sp2\WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU /integrate:c:\winxp

This process is known as “slipstreaming” and will update Windows XP with the SP2. The process will end with a simple complete message box if your copy of Windows XP can be slipstreamed.

(For a great little program that does “slipstreaming” use AutoStreamer.)

Optional: Create a folder called “C:\WinXP\Drivers” in the C:\WinXP directory you have already created and slipstreamed and place all current hardware drivers for your system in this directory. Be sure and create a new subfolder for each and every driver (i.e., video, audio, network, etc.). It should be noted that you will probably only have about 100 MB available for this directory.

To make your recovery CD bootable use ISOBuster to extract the boot loader from the original Windows XP CD. In ISOBuster select your CD drive and highlight the bootable CD folder on the left. Then drag the BootImage.img file to your hard drive so this file will be available for the CD project.

Use CDBurnerXP to burn your Recovery Disk. Drag the entire content of “C:\WinXP” to the disk project and use the BootImage.img file for the boot image data according to the directions of your burning software in order to make a bootable CD. (Also, if there is enough room, drag the Drivers directory to the project so they are available on your Recovery CD.) Burn the CD and then test your new Recovery Disk.

Make sure that you have the 25-digit Product Key from the original Windows XP Install disk!

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Randar

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