Ask Leo! by Leo A. Notenboom

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

Search First! Then browse: Categories | Full Archive | By Date | Newsletter

Home » Windows » Windows Installation

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 identify that we have the right directory.)

"Hopefully what that manufacturer has done is copy the Windows XP CD-ROM image to your hard disk."

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:

Article C1873 - December 26, 2003

Helpful? Get new articles weekly by email in my FREE newsletter!

Your Name:
Your Email:


Why Subscribe?

Recent Comments
141 Comments

currently you can still purchase an OEM XP-Pro SP3
"for distribution only with a New PC" CD
from major online retailers like TigerDirect, providing you purchase some other hardware component to meet the MS requirement ie a new HDD and the CD qualifies, and sometimes the OEM CD will work with your current COA Key sticker on the PC

Posted by: Richard at July 8, 2009 12:46 PM

XP INSTALLATION CD AVAILABILITY SIMPLIFIED The cd itself is worthless, and useless, without a license key, so if you find a friendly tech, he will make you one for the cost of 5 mins + a cd, as he will have an original of any OS.
Regards Bill

Posted by: Bill Shenton at July 9, 2009 5:02 PM

Any other installation CD of the same version (Home, Pro etc) will work with your license. Find a friend and borrow their CD to install then use your license. Or find a friendly computer shop who will do it for you. This is perfictly legal as it's the license that is registered not the CD. -Dave

Posted by: Dave at July 9, 2009 11:54 PM

Thanks for the advice Leo but I was wondering where did the winnt.exe and winnt32.exe went. They weren't present in the I386 folder. Please do help me. Thank you.

They're not required and may never have been there. It's all up to the OEM who set up your machine.
- Leo
23-Jul-2009

Posted by: Attitus at July 23, 2009 2:36 AM

Can I install windows xp, with the serial that appears on the side of my computer, only if I borrow a instalation xp cd, I am not using my Pc because one of my restore CDs is broken,is it true that serial that is attach to my Pc will work to activate windows xp again, I know I don't care about the programs that my computer came with, I just want to be able to update windows,thanks for your help

Posted by: Oscar efigenio at September 7, 2009 1:39 PM

Hi Leo, My computer (not this one) goes to boot up but stops when the intel inside logo appears on the screen. What do i need to do to fix this problem?.

Posted by: Nick Crew at September 14, 2009 1:53 PM

My computer got the unmountable_boot_volume the other day and I need a Windows XP CD to repair it.
Would I need one of my own? or I will I be able to use another persons CD?

Posted by: Rob at September 17, 2009 12:05 PM

I, too, only have retry, more information, and cancel as an option. I have found the correct folder, but I have no way of telling the program which file it is since retry just keeps asking for the cd. I have the correct cd, so I could just use that, but it just keeps saying it is the wrong cd but I am certain that it is not. It won't accept the cd and it won't let me select the folder, so I'm stuck.

Posted by: Diverse at September 19, 2009 4:46 PM

DIVERSE says "I have the correct cd, so I could just use that, but it just keeps saying it is the wrong cd but I am certain that it is not. It won't accept the cd and it won't let me select the folder, so I'm stuck"

Welcome to Windows' Wonderful World of "Automatic Updates". At some point between the time you got your machine and the time you tried restoring it, Windows probably installed a service pack or two for you. Wasn't that nice of them? ;-)

Unfortunately, that rendered your old install CD almost useless, since you now have a different version of XP on your system than you have on the CD.

You can try a few things:
1) Roll back your system to the earliest restore point, reboot and try your CD again.
2) Uninstall any service packs in reverse order using "add/remove programs", rebooting each time, and try using your CD again. Do this one service pack at a time until your system matches your CD.
3) Try Leo's trick of burning the i386 directory on your system to a CD, and using that CD instead of your install CD.

*HOWEVER*, since you already have your install CD, the above may all be moot, anyway. Just boot your system off it and either reinstall or attempt a system restore.

If your system doesn't permit booting off a CD, then boot into XP, find your cdrom (which holds your setup CD), go into the i386 folder of the cdrom, find WINNT32.EXE and doubleclick on it. Then follow the instructions on the popup.

IN ANY CASE: Back up and save anything and everything you don't want to lose, because these reinstall methods wipe everything out.

You can save the stuff you want by burning it to CD, copying it to a different drive, or copying it off to another networked computer.

And if all else fails, there are other methods of backups and restores, but they aren't for the inexperienced or the faint of heart. For these, you should find a friendly neighborhood geek. We can be hard to find, I know. We're almost indistinguishable from real people, but we're out here. ;-)

Posted by: emfederin at October 13, 2009 10:50 AM

Dear Leo and Dear all,

Many thanks for this information.
I would like to create a bootable XP Pro SP3 CD.
I do not have any installation CD at the moment.

I have :
- a pre-installed XP Pro SP2, with legal licence, with no I386 directory, on a computer that has a CD burner
- a pre-installed XP Home SP3, with legal licence, with a I386 directory, on a netbook that does not have a CD burner.

Is it possible ?

Looking forward to your help and wishing you a very nice day,
Tom

Posted by: Tom at October 21, 2009 7:20 AM

Post a comment on "I don't have an installation CD for Windows XP - what if I need one?":






(Email Address will not be published.)

Remember Me?

By popular demand...
my tip jar
Cuppa Joe
Buy Leo a Latte!

(you may use HTML tags for style)

RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed specifically for comments on this article.

Before commenting, please...

  • Read the article at the top of this page. If your comment shows you didn't, it'll be deleted and ignored.

  • Comment only on this article. Use the Google search box at the top of the page if you have a question about something else.

  • Don't include personal information in the comment. No email addresses. No phone numbers. No physical addresses.

  • Don't spam. Excessive links to unrelated sites within a comment or across multiple comments will cause all such comments to be removed.

  • Don't ask me to recover lost passwords or hacked accounts. I can't, and those comments will be deleted.

  • I can't respond to every comment. And I can't vouch for the accuracy of others who do.

Please wait. Your comment is being processed ...


Question? Ask Leo!