Mat7h3w Posted March 18, 2006 Share Posted March 18, 2006 I own an HP Pavilion a1250n PC. It came with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 preinstalled. It also came with a rather large amount of useless garbage that I will never use in the form of bundled software. HP, like many other prebuild system companies, sadly did not provide me an actual full version set of installation discs for my OS. Instead I was provided the ability to create my own CD-R restore disks. These are used, in theory, to return the machine to its original factory condition. However, they are also quite useless for anyone who likes to customize their system, including the use of a 2nd OS like a distro of Linux. These "restore CDs" are basically full unattended installation discs for my OS. However, they are full of garbage software that I have no desire to use, and because of how they are setup, I have absolutely no control over the installation process. As such, I cannot setup partitions or even attempt to configure my system for the use of an additional OS. My question is, is there any way to rip a standard full installation of my OS from these restore discs? Which files on them would I need to attempt doing so, if this is even possible? I'd like to completely do away with the unattended installation, and just get a pure XP MCE 2005 installation if possible. This way I can customize the setup of my PC to my choosing instead of simply accepting the rather poor setup choices that are forced on me by the restore discs. If it is helpful at all, here is a listing of the files that are contained on each disc; On Disc 1 of the restore CD set - a folder callled i386 a folder called preload then the following files WIN51.B2 WIN51IC.B2 WIN51IP.B2 WINBOM.INI SAVEFILE.DIR protect.ed GRAPH GRAPH16 NTFS SVGA WIN51 WIN51IC WIN51IP Folder.htt WIN51.RC1 WIN51IC.RC1 WIN51.RC2 WIN51IC.RC2 WIN51IP.RC2 BLOCK.RIN HPCD.sys Master.log Disc 2 of the set contains a folder called hp a folder called i386 a folder called preload a folder called tools and the following files HPCD.sys Master.log Any help on this would be appreciated. If it's not for some reason possible to just rip the OS itself from these CDs to make a pure set of full install MCE 2005 XP discs, would anyone know of any better suggestion to my problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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