Solved Options When One Has No OS Disc

[bej]

I have three systems;

1. AMD X4 - 7/64Bit (Have OEM Disc)
2. Intel C2D - XP Home SP3 (Have OEM Disc)
3. AMD 3700+ - XP Pro (No OS Disc)

System #3 is six years old, but I've had zero problems with it. I do have the
"Product ID" and "Product Key" written in a text file.

When the HD or MB goes south, what options will I have to install the OS ?
(Image backup, Buy an OS, Linux, etc.)

 

[Brink]

Hello Bej,

If you have a USB port and a USB flash drive, you could use the tutorial below to create a bootable Windows 7 installation USB flash drive.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[bej]

Actually, I had concerns about the 3rd system (XP Pro) for which I have no OS disc.
Although I don't use the system much, I'm waiting for a HD or MOBO hiccucp which would force me to reinstall. I'm hoping to get a list of options.

 

[DocteurQui]

Hi,

Maybe I am misunderstanding, but you wish to look if there is a way you could reinstall your OS after a problem ?

If you have a CD-Key, you can download it right there .
You will be able to engrave (is this the right word ?) your ISO next.

Best regards,
DocteurQui

 

[whs]

Make an image - like this (works the same in XP) http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

If you only want a one time image, you can put it on DVDs or a larger stick. For more frequent images use an external drive. The compression is about 40% - so e.g. an OS partition with 50GB of data would fit on a 32GB stick. The partition size itself is irrelevant - only the data counts.

If you do not want to install the program, download and burn the CD that is mentioned in the box called 'Note'. You need that anyhow for a possible recovery but you can also use it to make the image.

 

[Brink]

Hi,

Maybe I am misunderstanding, but you wish to look if there is a way you could reinstall your OS after a problem ?

If you have a CD-Key, you can download it right there .
You will be able to engrave (is this the right word ?) your ISO next.

Best regards,
DocteurQui

Unfortunately, that link is only for the SP3 update for XP. It doesn't install XP itself.

 

[DocteurQui]

Oups... I should have read more... Sorry


Best regards,
DocteurQui

 

[F5ing]

It may be that the least you could do, and likely the best you could do (don't remember XP licensing to well), is follow the advice given by whs: make an image to store in a safe place. Heck, make multiples stored on different media.

May be better yet to actually apply that image to a spare disk that you can use to boot it from so as to verify that your image truly works. If you've never worked with images before that's all it takes to make you feel so much more comfortable about handling an HD failure.

It'd be a good idea to make imaging a practice for all of your machines, even though you've got install media for the others.

 

[bej]

Appreciate the responses. I decided to purchase a XP Pro/SP3 Disc. I can now image all three systems and not be concerned if the image fails for some reason.

 

[F5ing]

It may be that the least you could do, and likely the best you could do, is follow the advice given by whs: make an image

Appreciate the responses. I decided to purchase a XP Pro/SP3 Disc.

Okay, well that's truly the best you could do (but I would recommend continuing imaging too). I don't know whether you've purchased or opened it yet or not, but you should be aware that MS will stop offering security updates for XP in April 2014.

But at least the XP install disc could be used if you ever found yourself to be deeply infected by malware, and you happened to have that malware on there when you made your images. Plus you could use it on a totally different machine if/when your XP machine ever dies (as you mentioned in your first post).