Windows XP Pro Reinstall II
January 31, 2006 | In Tech LifestylePreviously written about on March 25, 2005.
Prepping the install. Backing up.
Files to be backed up:
- My Documents ~ 18Gb (lot of Torrents living in there!)
- Other folder(s) ~ 5.2Gb (movies, et al.)
Must not forget about the cryptic place where Outlook hides the .pst files: C:\Documents and Settings\
Taking a pragmatic and highly organised (at least that’s the theory) about performing a reinstall - and being influenced by Lifehacker’s post .
Using nLite 1.0RC5 [Requires .NET Framework 2.0 to run], I create an ISO from my original Windows XP Pro SP1a CD-ROM (build 1106). This creates a 541.58Mb archive. I then “Integrate a Service Pack” and slipstream SP2 into that area.
This brings it up to 624.35Mb.
Next, Hotfixes and Update Packs. All 38(!) of ‘em. Luckily, the geniuses at MSFN have the lot HOTFIXES: Win2000 SP4 – WinXP SP1 – WinXP SP2 posted on their message board.
nLite gets a little upset with gdidettool.exe and (I think) WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe but behaves well after that.
Final archive has shrunk to 601Mb.
In Patches, apply the Unsigned Themes Support (Uxtheme Patch)
Apply nLite Unattended Setup.
Tested in VMWare Workstation 5.5 - works okay, except stalls on the Product Key. Turns out it needs a unique key. Oh well. :-O
Copy “My Documents” to 40Gb iRiver (temporarily enlisted as back HD for the evening).
Copy Outlook files.
Make a note of email and broadband router settings.
Copy C:/PHP-5.1.1 folder
Copy Apache httpd.conf settings file.
[I'll add some more when I write up my notes.]
