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After installing Service Pack 2 (SP2), you may wonder what you should do if you decide to rebuild the system from scratch using a reformat-reinstall operation. In order to avoid having to reinstall SP2, you can create a quick Windows XP SP2 slipstream CD using your original XP CD, the network installation version of SP2, and a special command. Here's how:

  1. Create two folders in the root directory on your hard disk: one called WXP-SP2 and the other called D-SP2.
  2. Use drag-and-drop to copy the entire contents of the original XP CD to the WXP-SP2 folder.
  3. Download the network installation version of SP2 and copy it to the D-SP2 folder.
  4. Rename the WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe file to Wxpsp2.exe.
  5. Open a command prompt window and at the prompt type CD \D-SP2 and press [Enter].
  6. At the prompt, type Wxpsp2.exe /integrate:C:\WXP-SP2 and press [Enter].
  7. When the extraction and integration operation is complete, you can use drag-and-drop to copy the entire contents of the C:\WXP-SP2 to your CD-RW drive and burn the files to a CD.

Note: This quick procedure doesn't create a bootable Windows XP SP2 slipstream CD. Creating a bootable CD is a more detailed operation that involves a shareware tool called IsoBuster and a full featured CD-ROM burning application such as those from Nero or Roxio.