Daniel Small said:
I'm planning to rebuild my secondary machine (HP Pavilion 753n, PIV 2.53ghz,
640MBram, 160GB Disk) with WinXP SP3 and would like to understand best
practices for this. I have a Dell OEM WinXP SP2 disk and am planning to
install that first and then use WinUpdate to install SP3. Will this work? Is
there a better way?
I also own an original retail WinXP Pro (pre SP1) but figure that starting
with the Dell SP2 disk is a better approach. Please advise?
You've got a couple of issues here that may complicate the situation. First off,
even if you're able to install XP on your HP using a Dell installation CD, it
won't pass activation. I can't guarantee that you'll be given the option to use
phone activation or change the CD key to the one from your HP. You're going to
have to decide if you want to take the chance.
As for using your original XP Pro CD, the problem here is that you won't be able
to install SP3 directly. If you try, you'll see this error message displayed.
http://home.comcast.net/~nepatsfan2005/XPSP3RC2.JPG
In order to install SP3, SP1 or SP2 has to already be present on the
installation. An alternative approach is to "slipstream" one of the earlier
service packs into the files from your original installation CD and create a new
installation CD. Here's some info on this procedure.
Create a Slip Stream version of Windows XP
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/slipstream.htm
Here are some of the files you'll need to obtain in order to follow this
procedure:
Windows XP Service Pack 2 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and
Developers
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...be-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&displaylang=en
AutoStreamer 1.0.33
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/1092632287/1
CDBurner XP
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/download.php
I can't vouch for, nor have I seen any confirmation that an installation CD that
has been slipstreamed with SP3 will work without problems. Also, SP3 is still
not available through Windows Update.
Good luck
Nepatsfan