I recently had a disk crash hac to build a boot drive from scratch. I have a
couple of questions:
1. The only way I know is install my old XP pro then apply all of the
MS updates this is really time consuming. Since I seem to kill disc drives
every couple of months is there an easier way?

2. After installing the updates I wanted to install command console but
it says the the version on my XP cd is older than my installed operating
system. How do I get a current version?

Thanks

My first concern would be why are you killing disk drives every couple of
months??? most disks nowadays have a 1 to 2 year warranty

The easiest way to reinstall XP and SP2 would be to create a slipstreamed
version of XP ....where a program inserts SP2 into XP and makes the
resulting CD bootable.Then the only updates required would be those since
SP2 was released.
http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/
look way down for the line Bootable Windows XP installation CD-Rom (with
SP1).......and substitude SP2 for SP1
This would also solve your #2 problem

Another way would be to use "Ghosting" software and Clone your HD to another
HD.....this would result in all of your updates/programs being in place when
the 1st HD crashes....The only thing you would need to do is remove the
crashed drive and install the clone.Acronis True Image is great for this as
well as imaging partitions from a HD.
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/

good luck
peterk

--
"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge
faster than society gathers wisdom. - Isaac Asimov
"RichSr" <RichSr@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0B3AB499-9092-42DB-8726-06C3EF5594DE@microsoft.com...
>I recently had a disk crash hac to build a boot drive from scratch. I have
>a
> couple of questions:
> 1. The only way I know is install my old XP pro then apply all of the
> MS updates this is really time consuming. Since I seem to kill disc
> drives
> every couple of months is there an easier way?
>
> 2. After installing the updates I wanted to install command console
> but
> it says the the version on my XP cd is older than my installed operating
> system. How do I get a current version?
>
> Thanks

Thanks for the help I will follow your advice for creating the bootable disk.
but I am not sure how that will answer my second question I want the command
console on my existing system.

Disks crashing is making me crazy. All of the problems centered on 2 disks
that were a couple of years old. I do not recall the cause of the 1st crash
but I ended up having to reformat the boot drive. My second crash was
appeared to be worm/virus related and in the end I could not even reformat
the drive. The third time was just very weird. I noticed one day that I
could not access my CD and DVD drives. Windows gave me an error that said my
registry info for each was corrupt or incomplete. I tried system restore to a
point when I know they worked and got the same results. I tried uninstalling
them and re-installing. I tried everything I could think of with the end
result I could no longer boot. I have no idea how I did that. but after a
lowlevel format I was able to re-install.


"peterk" wrote:

> My first concern would be why are you killing disk drives every couple of
> months??? most disks nowadays have a 1 to 2 year warranty
>
> The easiest way to reinstall XP and SP2 would be to create a slipstreamed
> version of XP ....where a program inserts SP2 into XP and makes the
> resulting CD bootable.Then the only updates required would be those since
> SP2 was released.
> http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/
> look way down for the line Bootable Windows XP installation CD-Rom (with
> SP1).......and substitude SP2 for SP1
> This would also solve your #2 problem
>
> Another way would be to use "Ghosting" software and Clone your HD to another
> HD.....this would result in all of your updates/programs being in place when
> the 1st HD crashes....The only thing you would need to do is remove the
> crashed drive and install the clone.Acronis True Image is great for this as
> well as imaging partitions from a HD.
> http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/
>
> good luck
> peterk
>
> --
> "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge
> faster than society gathers wisdom. - Isaac Asimov
> "RichSr" <RichSr@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:0B3AB499-9092-42DB-8726-06C3EF5594DE@microsoft.com...
> >I recently had a disk crash hac to build a boot drive from scratch. I have
> >a
> > couple of questions:
> > 1. The only way I know is install my old XP pro then apply all of the
> > MS updates this is really time consuming. Since I seem to kill disc
> > drives
> > every couple of months is there an easier way?
> >
> > 2. After installing the updates I wanted to install command console
> > but
> > it says the the version on my XP cd is older than my installed operating
> > system. How do I get a current version?
> >
> > Thanks
>
>
>

How do I get the SP2 file to slipstream? Windows update just tels me that I
have already applied SP2. I cannot seem to find a way to by pass that

RichSr wrote:

> How do I get the SP2 file to slipstream? Windows update just tels me
> that I
> have already applied SP2. I cannot seem to find a way to by pass
> that

I'm really not sure what you're doing, but here are links that explain
clearly how to slipstream:

http://www.msfn.org/articles.php?act...showarticle=49
http://www.windows-help.net/windowsx...p2-bootcd.html

As for the hardware problems you've been having, are you sure your
motherboard is healthy? How old is this computer?

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Why are you killing disk drives? I have disk drives that I have used since
1998 and none have ever failed. Of course one will probably fail now but
"killing" disk drives is definitely not normal.

--

George Hester
_________________________________
"RichSr" <RichSr@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0B3AB499-9092-42DB-8726-06C3EF5594DE@microsoft.com...
> I recently had a disk crash hac to build a boot drive from scratch. I
have a
> couple of questions:
> 1. The only way I know is install my old XP pro then apply all of the
> MS updates this is really time consuming. Since I seem to kill disc
drives
> every couple of months is there an easier way?
>
> 2. After installing the updates I wanted to install command console
but
> it says the the version on my XP cd is older than my installed operating
> system. How do I get a current version?
>
> Thanks

Hi:
I'm tryiang to copy mi Win XP CD to a folder in my secondary HD, but sis or
seven files are not being copied, and report a message saying:
Cannot copy [file_name]: Invalid MS-DOS function
which prevents me of slipstreaming Win XP and SP2 into a bootable CD. What
can I do?
Thanks guys

"Malke" wrote:

> RichSr wrote:
>
> > How do I get the SP2 file to slipstream? Windows update just tels me
> > that I
> > have already applied SP2. I cannot seem to find a way to by pass
> > that
>
> I'm really not sure what you're doing, but here are links that explain
> clearly how to slipstream:
>
> http://www.msfn.org/articles.php?act...showarticle=49
> http://www.windows-help.net/windowsx...p2-bootcd.html
>
> As for the hardware problems you've been having, are you sure your
> motherboard is healthy? How old is this computer?
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
>