I don't have an installation CD for Windows XP - what if I need one?

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It seems to me that selling computers and hardware without the discs is shady business practice. We had to reformat my computer and had to wait for days to get copies of the discs. So I was without a computer while waiting. Having the discs would have expedited getting the computer fixed a lot faster. Also, why don't computer manufacturers offer free hands-on fixing of the computer as part of purchasing it? Many people would be pretty desperate if they had to resort to bringing their computer in. The company that would come up with that carrot would be a successful company indeed! I would definitely buy a computer from that business! I so appreciate your website, but I don't get a lot of it. I don't know how you know all that stuff, either. I am willing to do some basic things for my computer, but I am not a computer techie any more than I am an electrician and would try to rewire my house.

I dont have a restore disk for my emachine. Can I download the cd on-line? Please help.

check this site:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic43051.html
for changing windows setup source path to where you have i386 directory saved.

I have bought a refurbished ibm x24 laptop with a legitimate product key but xp pro was not installed. i do not have a disk from the firm. What type of disk will work? A friend has a genuine advantage disk he used to get a legal version of windows...would that disk work for me if I use my legal licence?
hope you can help as stumped at the moment!

Leo,

Thanks for your help. After hours of searching for answers I finaly ran into your site and solutions. The winnt32 was the file I was looking for when wanting to re-instal my copy of XP.

Great work!
PA

It's ridiculous. My e-machines computer had an app for printing a CD for restoration purposes; the trouble is that the resulting CD failed.

I called their tech support and bought one, then solved the problem without it. I am very glad I got the disk because the NEXT time I had a major problem, my free tech support had lapsed.

If you don't have a restore CD, call the manufacturer and buy one.

So, basically, I can direct windows to the 1386 folder when it asks me to insert the disk...

But if I want to run a full reinstallation of windows, there's no way to get this folder onto a CD-R or to run the reinstallation from within windows itself?

the only images I know how to burn are .ISO

is a folder able to burnt and then booted?

Another related question. I'm want to buy a refurbished IBM laptop. It doesn't come with a Windows XP Pro reinstallation disk. Instead, its specs state the following: "Windows XP Professional Restore Partition on Hard Drive". Do you think that the partition has on it whatever is required to reinstall XP if the copy on the laptop goes south on me?

Hi, my pc warranty is expired, I can`t start my pc,won`t let me start in safe mode, or restore to factory settings. I read somewhere that re-installing windows XP may fix the problem but I have no cd, no money to get an expert either, is there anything I can do?

I'm trying to create a bootable Windows Setup CD, using the instructions at:
http://www.howtohaven.com/system/createwindowssetupdisk.shtml

My Dell laptop didn't come with a Windows CD, so I'd really like to have one, in case a system file is corrupted (which happened to me recently). My problem is that the I386 directory is almost 1 Gig in size, so it won't fit on a CD. I could burn it to a DVD (if I had a blank DVD), but I'd rather have it on a CD anyway. Do you know what files I can delete from the I386 directory to make it fit on a CD?

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