I had this problem last month…my home Windows XP went “dead” and I had no choice but to reformat the entire hard-disc. Sounds easy except for one tiny problem. This meant I need to redo my Windows Update as well and with a dial up connection at home, updating Service Pack 2 means I have to wait for ages.
The solution was to slipstream the Windows XP with SP2. The details how to do it can be found at here. An extract from the site:-
Slipstreaming explained:- Back when Microsoft was developing Windows 2000, the company decided to create up a more elegant way of integrating service packs and other fixes back into the core OS, so that enterprise customers could always maintain an install set of the latest version of Windows, ready to be installed at any time on new machines. And slipstreaming isn’t limited to service packs, either: You can also slipstream in various product updates, including hot-fixes
Step 1: Copy your XP CD-ROM contents to the hard drive (e.g. to C:\xp)
Step 2: Get XP SP2 (copy to C:\sp2)
Step 3: Combine XP with SP2 (cd \ [ENTER]cd sp2 [ENTER] xpsp2.exe /integrate:c:\xp [ENTER])
Step 4: Extract a file needed to make your new CD bootable (use a shareware tool called ISOBuster to grab a hidden file)
Step 5: Make a bootable XP SP2 CD (using e.g. Nero CD Burner)
Step 6: Test it
