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XP CD Problem

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by mikep

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Dear members can anyone help with the following:

I have just purchased a new notebook. My notebook arrived with Windows-XP installed. I was amazed to find NO XP CD with my system so I called the manufacturer and they told me that the CD does not come with the system as all the install XP file are on my H/D should I need to do a reinstal etc.. They told me they were hidden in a partition on my H/D but wouldn't give me any info on how to extract them onto CD for the future. I have noticed that my H/D has been partioned and there are files in the hidden partition but I cannot access the files.
When I run 'diskmgmt' from Windows/System32 I can see clearly that my disk has two partitions and I get the following information:

DISK 0 HOME (C:) HEALTHY (SYSTEM) NTFS
DISE_BACKUP HEALTHY (UNKNOWN PARTITION) FAT32

I can view the properties of my HOME partition but not my DISE I guess my XP install files are in the DISE_BACKUP partition but it will not allow me to view or extract these files. Can anyone help? where are my XP install files??

I have noticed in my windows directory that there is a folder called 'I386' and it appears to have the compressed XP install files there.

Please can somebody help with my problem?
Thank you

Mike

5 replies

by mphoffar

The i386 Directory is all your need. When something like windows setup is run it'll uncompress those and install them into the right places. If you're installing a new windows component, like IIS for example, when the installer asks for the windows CD, you'll just point the setup to that directory instead of the CD-Rom.

Now if you want to run setup from that directory, you'll just type winnt by itself and i'll prompt you where to get the compressed file from (it'll default to where you ranit from) and then it'll start setup from there.

It's not uncommon to have a setup like this where a restore CD will read from that backup partition to repair the installation. If I were you I'd do two things. One is to familiarize yourself with the system restore utility (under system tools) and backup the i386 directory to a CD-Rom or Zip Disk.

Mark

by john_faust

I386 is the correct folder. All NT/2000/XP install disks have this directory for installation of Windows on Intel-based systems. Copy that directory to a CD, and when you need to run setup again, type WINNT in a command window.

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