[ben339]

Hi all,
After seeing a post from around a year ago about recovering Windows XP Media Center Edition, I feel compelled to ask a question related to that.
As you can see from my profile, I bought an HP Media Center Edition 2005 PC. Now, it came with a recovery partition, yes. What I want to know is how to create XP recovery discs from my current PC in case something fails. This is not to be differentiated from the HP Recovery Discs that I made after getting the computer - those do not have the XP operating system ONLY, they only give you the option to reformat your computer and restore it to "factory condition" - which is not what I want to do. What I want to do is to create operating system recovery discs which I can use to repair/reinstall Windows XP Media Center. I tried calling up HP to ask them for it, however they said that they no longer give out OS discs, only "recovery" discs.

Thank you for your help.

[Noyb]

In My HP... It's found ..
Programs >>> PC help & Tools >>> HP PC Recovery CD-DVD Creator.
You only have one shot at this ... if it's been done before .. you outa luck.

For a System and Data restore back to the way I like it ... I use Acronis True Image ... http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...cts/trueimage/ ...
And store my recovery files in an External Hard drive.

[ben339]

Yes, as I said I know about this, but this doesn't create the OS Installation discs. It reformats the hard drive and restores it to "factory condition", with a lot of junky programs I have no need for and besides that it won't letm e repair the operating system.

[Noyb]

I'm reasonably sure that you can do a "repair" from the HP Recovery CD/DVDs.
Do you have them ??
I don't do "repairs" since I don't trust it to remove garbage added ... and not really sure what it does or doesn't do.

Instead .. I use Acronis to rewrite my OS partition with a Fresh install that's fully updated, loaded, configured, and ready to go.
Takes about 10 minutes ... In order to do this ... Your data must be in another partition.

[SlimJimmy]

Press F11 at startup. When you get to the RESTORE window, it'll give you two choices - a repair or a clean install.

[ben339]

Guys, I don't think you understand. I HAVE the recovery discs! What I want to know if possible is to be able to create ONLY an OS disc (using my current OS), to be used on my PC that will only install the OS without the added junk that comes with manufactured PCs.

Does Acronis do this? Will it let me create a fresh install of Windows XP MCE on my PC?

A tool that I am trying out is nLite, (http://www.nliteos.com/), however I am not sure it will do what I want.

And as for pressing F11 at boot, it is not possible as my recovery partition was deleted (after creating the recovery discs of course). Just so you understand - I have the recovery discs, but they do not install ONLY the OS, as I said they perform a "recovery" which formats the computer and puts it back to "factory condition", which isn't what I want.

Thanks for your help anyway, I hope I explained better what I meant.

[Noyb]

Yes .. I (we) understand.
The only way to install Just the OS without the extra HP garbage ... Is get a new copy of M$ Windows MCE ...
Or ....
Remove all the OEM Garbage, install all the M$ updates, favorite programs ...etc ..
and make an Acronis Backup so you don't have to do it all again.

An Acronis Backup will not do a "repair" ... but will rewrite your HD with the backed up OS exactly like you backed it up.

Acronis Can make a recovery DVD ... and a fresh install of Windows MCE, with all the updates will fit on one DVD.
You may have to temporarily disable M$ system restore to do this.

I strongly suggest you store all your Data in another partition besides the C: drive.

You don't see any HP recovery partition here either ...
But the D: drive is a fresh install, fully loaded, updated OS (only) ... ready to clone to C: and run.

[ben339]

Hmm well aparently nLite will do this... I am going to try it and see if it works. It will also do repairs, and do unattended install as well...

[cmw2010]

This site has instructions for making a Windows Installation CD from a Restore CD: http://www.easydesksoftware.com/recovery.htm#XP
You can also install the Recovery Console from your Restore CD so you always have the option to boot from it without a CD. Insert you cd then
1. Click Start, click Run, and then type CD-ROM drive letter:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons in the Open box, where CD-ROM drive letter is the drive letter assigned to your CD-ROM drive.
2. Click OK, follow the instructions on the screen to finish Setup, and then restart your computer.

[ben339]

If I try what you told me, if gives me an error: "The option to upgrade will not be available because setup was unable to load the file "D:/i386/WINNTUPG/NETUPRG.DLL""

If I browse the recovery disc, I also cannot find that folder (WINNTUPG).

Thanks for your help