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

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Download and fry a Kanotix cd (free download at www.kanotix.org) - boot your machine with this and it will run a complete operating system, including masses of programs. You can use this to rescue any files, data etc. on your harddrive. It won't write anything on your harddrive unless you enable writing. You can use it like any other windows system. If you like it you might consider installing it (you don't have to, you can keep running it from the cd if you prefer). It usually takes about 10 - 15 minutes to do a full install including all the additional programs. It is absolutely free if charge. If you restore your XP it is still worth keeping as an emergency rescue disk.

Concerning the lack of an installation CD for Windows XP Home Edition. I have a system purchased last July; Windows XP Home Edition was installed in a special 'recovery' partition. There were no CDs provided, and the CDs that the user was requested to make did not fit your criteria. There is, however, a I386 partition on my hard drive with the requisite .dll files.

I tried running the System File Checker that you mentioned in your article of 2/28/04, and I indeed got the request to insert my Windows installation CD. The message box had three buttons: Retry, More Information, and Cancel. Starting from the end: Cancel ended the SFC scan right now; no ifs, ands, or buts.

More Information provided another message window indicating that the Windows Installation CD was needed to provide the data needed to recover a (potentially errored) system file. The only button was OK which brought one back to the Retry, More Information, Cancel message.

Retry cycled back to itself. Apparently, if one does not have the appropriate CD in the drive, this is the default result.

So the question still remains - how does one respond to Windows request for an Installation CD when one has never received it. Is there a work-around?

I had the same issue as Donley. I copied the entire I386 folder to a CD and that solved the issue. The SFC is running as I type and is working correctly.

Tough luck, you guys. Why not BUY a CD at the store. I really could use the money!

Thanks Jonathan. I copied the I386 file to CD as well and sfc /scannow works fine now. Cheers!

i was wundering how i can reset my windows xp home to the brand new factory settings.i have no windows instillation disc or recovery discs,all i want to do is remove everything on the hard drive other than what came with the windows xp when it was new.please help me on this

You need an installation CD.

my hard drive is cleared and i have no setup CD for windows XP pro SP2 and i need to install windows XP pro SP2, i have the 6 floppy boot discs but i dont have the actual CD to continue the install. I cant look for winnt32.exe because i dont have an operating system installed on my computer. what do i do?

I believe you'll need to purchase a copy.

manufacturers/retailers normally only supply i386 when they don't supply the disc. If you are prompted to enter the setup disk and you know the path to i386 but windows won't let you enter the path then you will need to amend the registry.
From http://support.microsoft.com/kb/222473/EN-US/
"NOTE: The Windows 2000 source files location information is stored in the following registry location and can be modified to point to the drive letter of a volume that has an I386 flat folder of the installation files or change the SourcePath value in the registry to point to a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path instead of a mapped network drive.

The SourcePath value is located in the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup
Example:

If the I386 directory is at C:\I386, the SourcePath value would be C:\.

If the I386 directory is at \\Servera\w2kflat\I386, the SourcePath value would be \\Servera\W2KFlat.

After you restart the computer, WFP and SFC /SCANNOW uses the new source path instead of prompting for the Windows 2000 installation CD-ROM."

Good luck and keep on tooting.

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