[slaterlp]

Hi. This my first post here.

What a great site. I think I may finally be at the right place to get help.
I have looked in so many other places i have totaly confused myself.

Simply put, I need to make a bootable XPpro CD, using my legal copy i386 directory on my thinkpad, as the source for the XPpro CD files.

Can someone please help a confused bootable ISO file novice, and point me at the right instructions? Please?

Basically. My thinkpad T60 has XPpro. It's a LEGAL copy, and I have the legal product key. I have upgraded to Sp3.

What I dont have is an XP cd, it didn't come with one, or a floppy drive, and the recovery programes dont work to allow me to make a CD.

Luckily it does have a FULL copy of the xcp cd in the i386 directory and it matches the product key. I have checked this by a trial partial new install.

I have tried to make a bootable CD from this, but failed miserably as I am an iso file novice. So I need a bit of expert help.

I have downloaded Imgburn, Easycd creator, CDburnxppro, Freeeasycdburner, and Microsoft tools dos CDBURN.EXE.

i also have ISObuster and winimage. It was one of the above programs that led me here, in my confusion I have forgotten which.

I have downloaded various bootable iso files for win98 and dos, and even tried to extract the bootable bit from a friends XPpro cd using Iso buster, and tried adding that to my own XP files. But it failed to boot. Dont laugh.

I also have Sonic CD burning software installed (it came with the T60), and dont think the makebootable button is doing the job. It burns the Cd's, but they wont boot.

So if anyone wants to help and tell this dummy the RIGHT way to do it, I would be very grateful.

Thanks

[pcuser]

Point XP-ISO-Builder to the I386 folder on your hard drive.

Burn the resulting iso image to cd and then boot from it.

[slaterlp]

pcuser, on Jun 1 2009, 11:01 AM, said:

Point XP-ISO-Builder to the I386 folder on your hard drive.

Burn the resulting iso image to cd and then boot from it.

Ok thanks I'll give that a try. I downloaded it, (hope its not all in German). Can you tell me if after I have made and booted from the new CD, it will just let me change to my I386 dir (on the CD) and then run setup from there?



But I would really also like to understand the process here on this site too, since it seems to be the most comprhensive and informative I have found, so if anyone else can reply on how to use the features on this site that would be great. Just point me at a previous answer if there is one Im sure I ma not the first to have wanted to do this.

This post has been edited by slaterlp: 31 May 2009 - 11:35 PM

[pcuser]

Quote

hope its not all in German

I'm guessing that you didn't know that almost half of the UBCD4Win development team speaks German but they answer questions like yours in English just to make it easier for you?

[rdsok]

Read the main website for a better understanding of the UBCD4Win project and how to build it

[slaterlp]

Haha, No, i didn't know that you guys spoke or are German. So ----- Danke schön. Hope thats right

And yup, I have just started to read more from the main site and begin to educate myself a little more before proceeding.

And when I get my cd created, i will post another ’Danke schön’

I only wanted to create one Cd, but this stuff is very interesting.

[ben_mott]

Hello,

here is Bart way of doing it (you can use SP2 instead of SP1)

http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/#wxp

About Bart

Bart's full name is "Bart Lagerweij". He is 39 years old and has been married for 14 years to Sylvia. one kid, Dinant 11 years old. He lives in a small town called "Kootwijkerbroek" (The Netherlands, Europe).


Ben

This post has been edited by ben_mott: 01 June 2009 - 03:37 PM

[slaterlp]

ben_mott, on Jun 2 2009, 04:32 AM, said:

Hello,

here is Bart way of doing it (you can use SP2 instead of SP1)

http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/#wxp

About Bart

Bart's full name is "Bart Lagerweij". He is 39 years old and has been married for 14 years to Sylvia. one kid, Dinant 11 years old. He lives in a small town called "Kootwijkerbroek" (The Netherlands, Europe).


Ben

SUCCESS I did it. Thanks to this site and all who replied.

Firstly, yes, I have already downloaded the Barts way information page , but as a Novice i wanted something I could get my head around a bit easier as first.

So I used the xp-Iso-Builder program. Brilliant. Thanks for suggesting it. Now i will carry on reading and try the Ultimate boot disk, and maybe even Barts way too. ( I must get a life, this is fun lol).

But I had a problem doing the xp-Iso-Builder, can anyone explain it? First you have to understand that my Thinkpad was built by IBM/Lenovo, and the i386 directory was already there when I bought the Laptop ---- new. So they must have put it there, not me.

I installed and ran the xp-Iso-Builder program. Easy.

Step 1 asks for the source. So I aimed it at my c:\i386 dir. It said ........ couldn't be detected. Huh? Because Its definitely there.

So with what I have written above about the i386 directory in mind, I wondered if it might work with the "convert recovery disc" option.

So I tried that and selected XPpro SP2. Then I tried the search facility. It failed runtime error 9999 and fehler bie sstartsearch. Which i guess means some failure about searching.

So then I tried entering the paths, but step 2 seems to be reversed with step 3 as it gave me a message about the source and destination being wrong.

So I entered the path for the source of my recovery CD as being c:\i386, and entered a new folder path as my destination for the recovered files.

That seemed to work and i just let it do its thing after that.

I cant believe how "simple" it appeared to be. a lot of work must have gone into this program.

But can anyone, expert with xp iso builder, explain about the paths and recovery cd. My original c:\i386 dir can be used for installs. I know this as I have tried it. So I am a bit confused as to exactly what it is.

Anyway another couple of questions i have are:

Where are the Video tutorials as mentioned on Step 11 "how to burn image correctly" I went to the homepage as suggested, but couldn't find them and of course most of it is in German so i couldn't search easily. I tried the xp-Iso-Builder webpage and selected the english version page but still couldn't find any tutorial for how to burn image correctly.

Final question is interesting.
On the Forum, it says that I could have just used my friends original XPprosp2 CD and inserted my own Product Key. Is this correct? So I didn't need to build from my own i386 folder? I can just use and XPprosp2 CD and insert my own Product KEY. That sounds great, does anyone know if this is correct and if it is, can you explain it to me.

I always thought that microsoft has somehow stopped people using the wrong key with the wrong CD. I always thought the product key was unique to the CD.

Anyway, thanks again at least now i have a legitimate and working copy of XP if I need to do a rebuild. And I have kept the ISO file backed up in case I ever need to make another CD too.

This post has been edited by slaterlp: 02 June 2009 - 12:55 AM

[slaterlp]

And also I forgot to say, I used IMGBURN to make the CD. It is such an easy program to use. So thanks for whoever told me about that program too.

This post has been edited by slaterlp: 02 June 2009 - 03:46 AM

[rdsok]

xp-Iso-Builder is a cool util but really don't expect us to provide support for it simply because we'd suggested you try it to resolve the issue you had.

XP comes in not only Home and Pro versions, but they are also released as different types... Upgrade, Retail, OEM, VAR, Enterprise, NFR are examples of several different types of each version. Getting a copy of the same type is also required ( not just the same version ) BUT also remember that it may be legally questionable in some places in the world. In addition to the version and type issue, some companies also customize the disks they distribute specifically for that system so you may encounter a combatibility issue in some cases.

[cdob]

@slaterlp
In addition read KB899356 http://support.micro....com/kb/899356/
A Thinkpad use a System Locked Preinstallation (SLP) Windows.
Use the key from the current running Windows.

[slaterlp]

To CDOB, thanks very much for that additonal information, I wasn't aware of that.


To rdsoc.
Jeez, are you having a bad or somethng?

OK fine, I guess I wont ask again.

I really dont "EXPECT" any support, and am grateful for ANY answers I get.

I am new here and obviously dont know the rules. But you dont have any manners.

You could have pointed me to the appropriate place for the answers to the questions I had the temerity to ask. Or, if you dont know the answers, you could simply have not replied at all rather than get testy

There are things in which I would count myself skilled, and if I offered on the basis of my skill, a suggestion to somone, I would not then tell them later on that I dont give support.

It would cost me nothing to provide additional assistance, and would even give me pleasure.

And, as the suggestion wasn't posted by you that I use that particular tool, why then are you bothered if I ask a question about it?

But for the remainder of your answer, thankyou very much.

This post has been edited by slaterlp: 02 June 2009 - 08:50 PM

[rdsok]

There was nothing "testy", rude or otherwise in my response... I stated the simple truth that we don't provide support for that utility and nothing else.

I think you are getting a bit sensitive there dude... just because you didn't hear an answer you wanted is no reason to get upset.

[slaterlp]

rdsok, on Jun 3 2009, 10:48 AM, said:

There was nothing "testy", rude or otherwise in my response... I stated the simple truth that we don't provide support for that utility and nothing else.

I think you are getting a bit sensitive there dude... just because you didn't hear an answer you wanted is no reason to get upset.

Why should I be upset if i am kicked by an ass? Think about it.

[rdsok]

slaterlp, on Jun 4 2009, 04:35 AM, said:

Why should I be upset if i am kicked by an ass? Think about it.

Being rude to the admins and moderators like that for no reason have now gotten you a couple of days without being able to post on the forum so you can think about it and cool off.

Now that is what is truely called being an ass...