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Installing Windows XP and
Service Pack 2 with 1 CD
By:
Daniel Schuhmann
Bert Töpelt
Original document:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20040908/index.html
Summary:
Installing Windows XP and the
recently released Service Pack 2
no longer requires separate
installations. Using a process
called slipstreaming,
Microsoft allows users to burn
CDs that combine a Windows XP
installation CD and Service Pack
2.
Installing or reinstalling
WindowsXP typically requires the
additional task of installing
Service Pack 2
separately. After installing
WindowsXP, users must then go
through the tedious process of
installing Service Pack 2
updates and drivers. However,
Microsoft offers
an alternative.
Using a process called
slipstreaming, users can burn
CDs that combine a WindowsXP
installation CD and Service Pack
2.
This makes the whole Windows
installation run considerably
faster.
Administrators in larger
companies can especially benefit
from this method. But even
private users can make their
lives easier, especially if they
have to reinstall their systems
more frequently because of
extensive
hardware changes
(modders, for example).
What Do You Need?
Integrating the service pack
(the process is called
slipstreaming) onto one CD
requires:
-
the original WindowsXP
installation CD, naturally
with a legal license;
-
an application for extracting
the boot loader (in our case,
Isobuster);
-
CD burner software that
supports bootable CDs (we use
Nero);
-
Service Pack 2 in the network
version;
-
a CD burner for creating the
finished CD.
All classic versions of
WindowsXP are suited to
slipstreaming, so it does not
matter whether it is an OEM
version of WindowsXP Home or an
update version of XP
Professional. Even volume
licenses for larger companies
are supported. The only things
that can cause problems are the
special recovery CDs that come
with most mobile
computing
systems. Often, special versions
are used for these that create
predefined partitions on the
hard drive and
install a complete system image.
Slipstreaming is not always
possible with these recovery
CDs, but you can still try.
Where To Start:
Copying The
WindowsXP CD To The
Computer
First a folder structure needs
to be created on the hard drive.
For the whole job,
one gigabyte of disk
memory is
recommended
just for the time being. In
other words, a partition with
enough free storage space should
be selected.
A WIN_CD folder will be created
here, as well as two sub-folders
within it, CD and SP.
The content of the WindowsXP CD
is now copied into the CD
folder.
Now
it's time to download
Service Pack 2,
which you can do here:
Microsoft WindowsXP SP2
English
This "network installation"
differs from the standard
version in that it contains all
files.
The standard version, on the
other hand, compares up front
which files are already
available and only loads the
necessary files from the Net,
considerably reducing
Internet traffic.
However, it is really not suited
for slipstreaming, which is why
the 270 MB network version needs
to be loaded.
The
WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe
(English) file is saved in the
newly created SP directory.
The Slipstream Process
After downloading, it's time to
integrate the
service pack on
the XP CD.
In order to do this, the large
file needs to be unpacked.
Unpacking is controlled by the
special parameter /x,
for which you need the DOS
prompt:
Run
(Execute) | cmd
opens the DOS prompt
After the prompt has been
opened, you need to switch to
the SP directory. This is done
with the command
cd \WIN_CD\SP.
After this, the service pack
installation is started with the
parameter /x.
The complicated filename does
not need to be typed in; just
pressing the Tab key will insert
the filename into the window.
C:\WIN_CD\SP>
WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe
/x
After the parameter /x is
added and the Enter key is
pressed, off it goes.
The default folder can be
applied easily and confirmed by
clicking on OK. This unpacks the
service pack
files.
Once the files have been
unpacked, the actual integration
process begins.
Here too, a special parameter
needs to be transferred to the
program.
For this, you need the
DOS prompt again.
First, you have to switch to the
directory i386\update,
which is done with the commands
cd i386 and cd update.
From this directory, the file
update.exe is
then started with the parameter
/integrate:.
Note: With earlier service pack
versions (WindowsXP SP1 and all
service packs in
Windows 2000 and
NT4) this parameter was still /s
(for slipstream).
C:\WIN_CD\SP> cd i386
C:\WIN_CD\SP\i386> cd update
C:\WIN_CD\SP\i386\update> update
/integrate:c:\win_cd\cd
During the
integration
process, which takes some time,
a
dialog box
displays the progress.
A dialog box tells you when the
process is complete.
You will see that the
integration was successful when
you open the C:\WIN_CD\CD
folder.
After the slipstream process,
the file win51ip.sp2 will
also appear here.
The file win51ip.sp2 is the name
for the integrated SP2
Extracting The Boot Loader
The WindowsXP version you just
created can be used without
problem for installing on a
local
computer or via
the
network.
If you need to create a bootable
CD, however, a few additional
steps are required.
First of all, a boot loader is
needed. This corresponds to the
boot
sector on a
diskette or a
hard
drive.
Begin by extracting the start
image from the original
WindowsXP CD with the Isobuster
program.
This can be downloaded for free
from
smart-projects.
http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/
After it is downloaded and
installed, the Isobuster program
is launched. In the combo box,
select the
CD drive where
the WindowsXP CD is located. The
CD's content structure appears
on the left-hand side of the
program window.
Here, you must choose
Bootable CD.
The file Microsoft
Corporation.img can now be
seen on the right side. After
the file is right-clicked and
the Extract Microsoft
Corporation.img menu item is
selected, the boot loader can be
saved.
Save the boot loader to the
C:\WIN_CD folder.
Backing up the complete boot
image:
Microsoft Corporation.img
Burning The Bootable CD
After the boot loader has been
extracted, the next step is to
burn the CD. This works with any
burning software that supports
the creation of bootable CDs. We
chose Nero Burning ROM 6.3.
After starting Nero, select
CD-ROM (Boot).
A bootable CD is selected as the
project
Confirm the dialog box by
clicking on on New.
Next, in Nero Explorer, move the
files from the directory C:\WIN_CD\CD
to the CD root directory on the
left-hand side.
Just like a "normal" CD: the
files are copied to the CD root
directory
Click on the Burn button to open
the Burn dialog.
Here, you need to make some more
important settings, otherwise
the CD will not boot.
The crucial settings are found
in the Boot tab.
The image file is selected by
clicking on Browse ....
In the Open dialog box,
make sure that File type is set
to All Files,
because our boot loader does not
have the extension .IMA
expected by Nero.
The expert settings must then be
enabled so that the emulation
type can be changed - set it to
No Emulation.
It is also extremely important
to set the number of sectors to
be loaded to 4.
Why? Simple: Each sector has 512
bytes, and our boot loader has 2
kilobytes. Therefore, four
sectors need to be filled.
Finally, enter the name of the
original XP CD on the Label
tab.
Now you can burn the CD and use
it to install WindowsXP with the
integrated Service Pack 2.
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