[Segasonic]

I bought a used Windows 2000 machine and it didn't come with a CD. Now it's acting up bad years later and I want to do preferably a clean install. (Re-install if no choice.) I don't want to buy a disc because I should just buy a new PC for a little more but I don't have the money now.

When I installed Windows XP on my other PC I noticed it copies from the disc to a Cab Folder. I wonder if I can use a Cab folder on my 2000 PC to do an install. Or copy the Cab folder to disc and run it from there.

[TheOutcaste]

You'd be looking for an i386 folder that has roughly 4090 files in it, most of them with extensions ending in an underscore. May have some other folders as well, the i386 folder on the CD (2KwSP4) has a total of 5404 files and 93 folders.
No way to tell if a file or two is missing though without trying, and at that point you'd be stuck, so you'd want to create an image first that you can restore with if things go wrong.

If you have that i386 folder, you can possibly run winnt32.exe to do a repair install while booted to Win2K.

Might be able to burn that folder to a CD, and use the 4 floppy disks to install, but I've never tried that with just the i386 folder.

The 4 Floppy disk images and the makeboot tool can be downloaded from bootdisk.com.

You'll want to run Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder, or BelArc Advisor, or System Information for Windows to get the product key first, as that will be needed.

You might find a Computer Shop that can burn you a disk for not much more than the cost of the blank disk. You'd need to know if your key is for a Retail or OEM disk, and hope they have a copy of the correct version.
Right click My Computer, click Properties.
In the Registered to: section is a Product ID number
It may start with 51873, the next three numbers/letters tell you what type if disk was used.
If it was an OEM disk those three letters will be OEM.
270 is Volume License, other numbers are likely Retail, though there may be other VL numbers.

Imaging Software
Wikipedia Comparison Chart
Includes links to both free and commercial versions

Free:
Macrium Reflect
DriveImage XML
If you have a Seagate HD, you can use this, which is based on Acronis:
Seagate DiscWizard

Commercial:
Acronis True Image
DriveImage XML
Macrium Reflect
Norton Ghost

[Segasonic]

Thanks, I'll try it when I go on vacation next week.
Maybe I'll try to get the shop to give me a CD since they didn't give me one when I bought it.

Check this out for those who don't have their drivers on a disc.

http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/

It's free.

I used it to back up my drivers because as I found out one time before I didn't have all the drivers I needed on the XP disc, so I had to take it to the shop.

I reinstalled, ran the driver program, everything worked great.

And finally did an image with DriveImage XML.

[Segasonic]

I tried a re-install with out any discs and it died.
It was progressing well until it needed to reboot then I assume it needed a disc so it couldn't boot up.

No biggie, need a better PC.