Reinstalling XP Using The I386 Folder

[LukeWard7]

Right i'll give you a little background information first. My mates sister clicked on one of them MSN virus, namely the "Is this you" one. He ran a virus scan and he found 176 viruses (a quarter of them might of been from before but doesnt matter). It got rid of them all but now everytime he starts up ZoneAlarm it comes up with this message saying do you want to delete, rename or quarantine this one virus he cannot get rid of. He tried all of them which failed. He's decided he's going to reinstall XP not just 'coz of that but it was running slow recently and all that so I suppose now is a good time.

Now onto my question, can you create a bootable CD using the I386 folder on my computer and then put it in his and then reinstall XP that way? Is this possible and if so, how? Note, both copies of XP are legit.

Cheers, Luke.

[.kvn]

This may help

It gives guidance how to use your i386 folder to make a bootable cd to reinstall xp

[LukeWard7]

So do you reckon I could use the files from the I386 folder on my computer to create the bootable CD and then stick that in my mates sisters laptop and then follow the "Reinstalling Windows" instructions on that page? I ask this because would it accept a CD that was made on another computer?

Cheers, Luke.

[+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹]

Just a quick thought, why not just use either yours or your mates sisters XP disk, or the recovery disks provided?

[.kvn]

That won't be an issue. You are copying files that are required to install XP. Just have your product keys at the ready when asked during the reinstall process. Oh, and before you do any of this I suggest you make a backup of essential docs, pics etc.

Hope you sort it out!

edit

I was thinking of asking him that too but I'm guessing he doesn't have recovery disks. You should check to see if your laptop brand has another internal way of reinstalling windows like Acer does. I can't recall it, but if everything goes to pot on an Acer you hold some keys down during reboot and you can reinstall the OS.

[LukeWard7]

  BeLGaRaTh said:

Just a quick thought, why not just use either yours or your mates sisters XP disk, or the recovery disks provided?

Neither come with one, both are from retail stores (PC World & Comet) which I am led to believe rarely provide recovery or XP CD's to save them and customers money.

  nanuk said:

That won't be an issue. You are copying files that are required to install XP. Just have your product keys at the ready when asked during the reinstall process. Oh, and before you do any of this I suggest you make a backup of essential docs, pics etc.

Hope you sort it out!

Thanks alot, I hope too ;).

[+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹]

  lukeronaldo7 said:

Neither come with one, both are from retail stores (PC World & Comet) which I am led to believe rarely provide recovery or XP CD's to save them and customers money.

Damn, thats harsh, but surely they would have given the option when first booting? Oh well, Im glad I have always built my own systems rather than a bought one :)

Hope you get it sorted

[LukeWard7]

I don't believe it, I now started his laptop up and I get the option to start in "safe mode", "last known good configuration" or "start windows normally". I've tried all 3 of them and I get the same outcome, the Windows XP logo comes up for about 5 seconds then this blue screen white write writing pops up for about 1 second (not giving me a chance to read it) and restarts. She installed a webcam recently, would this be it? What can I do to get into the laptop and allow me to reinstall windows?

[.kvn]

Why not just boot the other laptop up and make the boot cd from that one. It doesn't matter which you use.

Can't help you on the boot problem though!

[LukeWard7]

No thats what I'm doing lol. I'm creating the the boot CD on my computer. But I've now started his laptop up only to see I can't get into Windows. So how am I meant to do the last part where it says "Browse to the 'i386' folder on the hard drive, Double-click winnt32.exe." if I can't get into Windows?

Edit: Or do you need to be in Windows to do that?

Edited May 7, 2007 by lukeronaldo7

[.kvn]

From what I gather, you boot from the newly made cd not the computer so when you boot up make sure it's from the cd drive first not the hard drive. That should get you into windows then from there into his i386 folder.

I hate it when these things happen...I know exactly how it feels.

[LukeWard7]

Right thanks for that, you've been a great help. I'm stuck on the last hurdle (suprise suprise). You see where it says "Browse to the 'i386' folder on the hard drive." well I goto Local Disk (C:) but it shows as nothings in there? Am I reading it right :s.

[.kvn]

It should either be in the C drive in its own folder or else in the windows folder of the C drive, and there's always the search option in the start button

[metalguy90]

  lukeronaldo7 said:

No thats what I'm doing lol. I'm creating the the boot CD on my computer. But I've now started his laptop up only to see I can't get into Windows. So how am I meant to do the last part where it says "Browse to the 'i386' folder on the hard drive, Double-click winnt32.exe." if I can't get into Windows?

Edit: Or do you need to be in Windows to do that?

if you make a bootable XP cd... then you dont have to run winnt (when in dos) winnt32 (when in windows). If you have done this properly, you can boot from the CD and follow the instructions from there. Careful though, you might wipe out everything (unless that is what is desired).

If this is a name-brand computer (ie. HP, Dell, IBM, etc) then you could run the recovery by pressing an F-key (ie. F11 or F3 or something like that) at the initial boot screen and begin the recovery process that way. This process will wipe out everything as well.

[.kvn]

metalguy90's post is perhaps a much easier way of doing this.

But keep trying the first method at least to see if it works. It would be good to find out;)

[LukeWard7]

Sorry for being a bit thick here, but i've done everything it said on this website upto "Browse to the 'i386' folder on the hard drive" which I cannot do because it says nothing is in Local Disk C.

So now what am I meant to do? Have I done it?

Oh and metalguy, the computer is Toshiba, would they have one?

Edit: Here is what it looks like

Edited May 7, 2007 by lukeronaldo7

[LukeWard7]

Anyone please?

[.kvn]

I'm looking around for any other info too. But according to the picture you've posted it appears that there's nothing on the c drive which doesn't make sense. Have you tried to locate the i386 folder by browsing to the c drive yourself?

What i mean is not to use Select 'Go' | 'Programs' | 'A43 File Management Utility' ....instructions from the mentioned site?

[LukeWard7]

Thanks for looking and no I can't. Its not like a bootable copy of XP its just like a basic version and no taskbar except a "Go" button so no you can't. No windows explorer.

I bet its because of the BSOD that I can only see for 1 second.

[.kvn]

Okay, I'm trying out the same method to see if there's anything i can find to help.

edit

okay, upon creating the bartpe disc i got a warning about building from an OEM version of xp as it could cause problems.

And I ran into immediate problems as it wouldn't work. I never got as far as the menu system. Just error messages about missing winlogon.exe

Edited May 7, 2007 by nanuk

[LukeWard7]

Cheers, i'll take a look in the morning to see if you've posted anything.

Luke.

[.kvn]

Okay using an oem disk does create problems with the boot cd and it seems that you need to install plugins before burning it.

This is causing more difficulties than I imagined. However I do have an alternate xp install disc so I suggest you use the same if you know someone with one. It'll be a lot easier.

[[deXter]]

If you have an i386 folder in your drive, then it most probably is an OEM CD - therefore, even if you create a bootable CD from it, you'll be able to install it only on your computer - unless your friend is also having the exact same PC.

You can confirm it by opening the file setupp.ini in the i386 folder. In the second line, if you see something like Pid=55274OEM then it's an OEM disk.

[LukeWard7]

Yes it is OEM, what does that mean? I cannot burn one?

[[deXter]]

No, you can burn one, but there may be errors - usually OEMs customize the XP Setup so that it'll automatically install the necessary drivers, software and so on. Or they may even remove drivers for certain hardware that isn't present on that PC. It depends on the extent of customization they've done.

For eg, take the Dell CDs. The Dell loader reads the system BIOS before the setup, and if the system BIOS is not genuine Dell, the OS will not install.

So what I'm saying is, you may be able install it on another PC, but there's no guarentee that it'll work perfectly.