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Summary: At some point you'll need your Windows installation CD. If you don't have one, you could be out of luck. Be sure to get one, and keep it safe. I don't have an installation CD for Windows XP - what if I need one? There are circumstances where you may have a legal installation of Windows XP without an installation CD. This can cause some panic when you're later instructed to make sure you have the CD before installing some other software or hardware. If you're legal chances are you're okay though. • The scenario that seems most common is a manufacturer that pre-installs Windows XP for you and then does not give you a CD to go with it. I think this is a bad practice but I understand that it may save the manufacturer and ultimately you a little bit of money. Hopefully what that manufacturer has done is copy the Windows XP CD-ROM image to your hard disk. Hard disks are so big these days that doing so takes up very little room and has some advantages I'll talk about in a second. To find out if the CD-ROM image is on your machine, search for a folder named I386. There may be several but the one we care about will contain close to 7,000 files, two of which will be winnt.exe and winnt32.exe. The I386 directory is typically one of the top-level directories on the distribution CD-ROM but most importantly it is the directory that contains the distributed copy of Windows XP. Winnt.exe and winnt32.exe are the DOS and protected mode setup programs, respectively. (You'd only need those if you were planning to re-install Windows XP from scratch - I use them here as an easy way to indentify that we have the right directory.) So now that you know you have the CD-ROM image, what if some later installation asks for the CD-ROM? Not to worry, it's actually pretty simple. Typically the "Insert CD" message has only an OK and Cancel button. Press OK, allowing it to fail. The next dialog will typically ask you to provide the location of the CD-ROM; just type in the full path of the I386 directory you discovered above. That's it. But it gets better. Windows remembers. Now that you've told Windows where your installation CD image is it'll remember that. The next time you're in a situation that might require your installation CD Windows will look there first; if it finds what it needs then it won't bother to ask you for it. Personally I find that pretty handy - so much so that even though I have my Windows CD I'll also copy it to my hard disk and point Windows to that copy the first time it asks. Then I don't have to think about it or insert the CD again. And this technique works for many other CD-ROM based products including Microsoft Office. Related:
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You said: >>>ypically the "Insert CD" message has only an OK and Cancel button. Press OK, allowing it to fail. The next dialog will typically ask you to provide the location of the CD-ROM; just type in the full path of the I386 directory you discovered above. My dialog box says "Insert your winxp cd.." and has "retry" "cancel" and "more information" --none give me the option to navigate to a different folder. Retry gives the same error. Cancel says "Are you sure you want to skip this file?" If you say yes, it continues and skips it, if not, it returns you to demanding the CD> MORE INFORMATION tells you the reason your cd isn't there is that it isn't there (groan) or your cd drive isn't working. Remarkably helpful, that! Posted by: Mark S at June 8, 2008 12:49 PMI'll report what Doris asked earlier... "I also only have the three options, retry, more info, cancel (no OK button). When I hit retry it asks for the CD again. When I hit cancel a message box says do you want to do this, etc. If I say no it goes back to the original three options. If I say yes it moves along to the next error with no option to give the path for the i386 folder. After going through this with all the errors I thought it might ask for the path before shutting down but NO. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Even though it discusses the I386 folder, I believe that Leo -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iD8DBQFIaCPRCMEe9B/8oqERAvW0AJoCGyNsAjt3eYWrwidbBEP4TTFHqACcD3J5 I also only have the three options, retry, more info, cancel (no OK button). When I hit retry it asks for the CD again. When I hit cancel a message box says do you want to do this, etc. If I say no it goes back to the original three options. If I say yes it moves along to the next error with no option to give the path for the i386 folder. After going through this with all the errors I thought it might ask for the path before shutting down but NO. Why doesn't Microsoft (or PC manufacturers) provide free full version Windows downloads to assist with the cheapness of these new laptop makers not including an install disk with the sale of a new laptop? They can keep the key because the product key is included with the laptop anyway. It might behove them to let customers use a free version for 30 days before buying anyway, like a beta version. And if you have the qualifying key to unlock it, whats the harm? Because many laptop and other manufacturers actually have slightly customized versions of the OS. And even though it's all key based, I think they thinking is that a download would increase piracy anyway. -Leo Posted by: Dave at July 25, 2008 09:35 PM I got an imagine copy of windows on my computer and still have the key code. what im not understanding is how do i reformat my HDD and reinstalle windows XP. I dont know a lot about computers but from my understand all will be erased off the HDD to include this imagine copy of windows and then im sitting here with a key code but no way to down load it. Am I wrong or is there another way to get around having a key code and no cd and need to reformat the HDD? thank you Exactly. You can't. Unless you have a Windows Setup CD you cannot reformat and reinstall. That's why I keep saying you need to insist on getting one from your computer vendor. -Leo Posted by: Leland at July 27, 2008 05:31 PM I have read the article and found it quite interesting, but, I dont think the solutions are practical. ok so to keep it simply with the sfc command if I dont have the cd ( but I do ) there are 3 options retry more info cancel I can't follow your method here press okay let it fail then type in the path I386 ..... the location of the files no no no it just comes back as install disc then retry ??? just incase I were to lose my re-install disc but it would be alot more convient not to use the disc right! can you heelp me out with that one please windows xp sp2 Posted by: chad at July 28, 2008 06:28 PMHi, I'm having problems with my hard disk and I want to buy a new one. I also have a partition with the image of windows installation. Is there any method to copy that partition in my new hard drive and then install windows again? Posted by: zuby at July 30, 2008 10:34 AMI want to reinstal windows xp home by running the filz WINNT32 but when doing so a error message comes up:Can't find c:\windows\I386\winntupg\netupgrd.dll and later on in the process the error: c\$win_nt$\I386\DRIVER.CAB Post a comment on "I don't have an installation CD for Windows XP - what if I need one?":
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