you only need the win51 file and its siblings. Others are useless.
Search the forum for posts with win51 in the title and you'll have the recipe to make them.

@ Djé - Many thanks for your help - I did not find the files themselfs but i understand that the files are only a text file with the work windows in them and saved as win51 & win51ip in my case as i have Windows XP Pro.

Just to confirm you say i will not need the setup.exe file then that is found at the root of the CD

Thanks Again

Be careful: I think you have to have a 'space' and 'enter' (or vice-versa) after the word (which as to be spelled correctly, case sentive maybe).
If you slipstream sp2 after the extraction of I386, you may not even need to write them, as they may be generated automatically by the slipstreaming process.
On the other hand, if your CD has allready sp2 included and you don't slipstreaming anything, you'll have to write a 3rd file (win51ip.sp2 ?).

The Setup.exe at the root is just the launcher thing showing-up when you insert the CD under windows, asking you what you want to do.

i have a little problem and wonder if this method could help,

i have a HP LS1200 MCE system which went bang due to my kids and putting/spilling a drink on it

as my system is dead and out of warrenty i was wondering could i use a method like this to use my recovery disk on another machine as i like MCE2005 ?

i know the hardware would be different but is it possible as i own the software could i bastardise it to use on another machine ?

if it is possible could someone explain in plain laymens terms how im not too clued up on this sort of thing

I simply re slip the i386 dir usin NLite & that will give you all the add files & subfolders you need inc the setup.exe etc.

Cheers
MC.

The main technical problem is that you have to be able to read the content of your recovery CD.
Usually those CDs are locked so they can only be read on the same machine, or at least on a machine from the same manufacturer.
Can you find any I386 folder on the CD? How many files are there in it?
If you insert the CD in the other machine and boot on it, what does it says?

@ MAVERICKS CHOICE

Many thanks a much easier way, thanks

This post has been edited by ner: May 12 2006, 03:01 AM

Not too hard to unlock HP Recovery_Partition which contains an I386, bad is it its just that and don't want to function just right, it goes into Recovery least for me. Those 9in1/11in1 things are same way, I386 stripped down as they combine like files in another location. Fortunately my friend had the 2 non oem specific MCE CDs I combined together.

1 of 2 HP recovery DVD I made before I started messin around contains an I386 at 2.47 GB, Thats all the stuff almost combined in one. Apps. Drv, MCE
Be rather difficult because I did try and strip stuff from it, kept erroring

WIN51 was 11 on original now just Win51, WIN51IP, WIN51IP.SP2 for MCE SP2

EDIT: On drivers same as Djé methods
I used DriverGenius while it was still working and all but 1 of them worked, bad was the 1 was Video and coming up on desktop at 640x480 was bad. Just went and got the ATI latest nows all fine cause it has the cats, inf and everything.
Couple other things I just made a autoit to run after the install during runoncex for keyboard . ATI panel and LightScribe drive.

This post has been edited by maxXPsoft: May 12 2006, 03:31 AM

how about a sony recovery dvd's....most of the files are .img and do not open with winiso or ultraiso or even with winimage

First recover the OS, then use the scripts in the first post to extract the Sony specific files and merge them with a hologrammed CD.

Sorry for this, maybe, stupid question - but to avoid misunderstanding:
Do I get you right?
As long as I have the oembios files and the corresponding product key from the registry I can use them to create a pre-activated installation CD of any version of WIN XP, including Home, MCE2005, TabletPC2005 and Pro?

And what do you mean withI don't get this.
Thought the product key of a pre-activated installation has to fit to the oembios files which on the other hand fits to a special manufacturer?

MCE and TabletPC are based on Pro so they use the same OEMBIOS files. (I have used OEMBIOS files extracted from a Dell Pro with a Product key extracted from a HP MCE to create a Dell MCE CD set.) I'm not sure if the files can be interchanged between Home and Pro.

The Product Key is tied to the edition of windows being installed. In my multi manufacturer CD (not finished yet), I do not change the product key for each manufacturer.

Bezalel,

In your multi-manufacturer cd, you do not change the product key for each manufacturer. Does this mean you can have one slipstream cd that will work across all pc manufacturers? How will it be activated?

Information on my multi-manufacturer CD can be found here http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=71016

I have an Emachines laptop. I'm one of those without a real Windows CD. I copied the i386 folder and used your programs (verified by Magic Jelly Bean) to get the OEM files and the actual cd key. I slipstreamed SP2 and the latest hotfixes into my unattended install (including the cdkey in the winnt.sif).

Installation is without errors but I have to activate. When I install from my ghost images I don't have to activate. My sticker has EMachines on the CDKey sticker so I assuming it's a ROYAL (??) OEM.

Am I missing something?

Edit: Man, I can't believe I forgot to replace the cdkey taken from the registry into the winnt.sif. I reloaded the system with the correct cdkey and it worked great. Thanks for all the info!!

This post has been edited by tcsdoc: May 24 2006, 11:41 AM

If you do it the way tscdoc did, and enter the product key from the pc sticker instead of the key in the registry, do you still have to call, or will it activate over the net? Also, will the registry product key work on all emachines pc's, or just his?

This post has been edited by waves: May 24 2006, 02:06 PM

If you use the key from the Registry (or the key in your Dell CD) you will not have to activate it at all. If you use the key from the sticker you will have to activate by phone. The CD Key is not tied to any manufacturer, the OEMBIOS files are.

You are focusing too much on the key when you should be focusing on the OEMBIOS files. The key isn't the problem, it's just the symptom. Here is a timeline of what happens on startup when you use your Dell CD on a Dell and a Non-Dell.

Dell:
WPA creates a hardware inventory and saves it as WPA.DBL
Using the OEMBIOS files WPA checks that the PC is manufactured by Dell
Verification passes - Have a nice day

Non-Dell: (System Builder - Not yet activated)
WPA creates a hardware inventory and saves it as WPA.DBL
Using the OEMBIOS files WPA checks that the PC is manufactured by Dell and is using a factory key.
Verification fails - proceed to next step
WPA.DBL is compared to WPA.BAK to determine how much hadware has changed
Verification fails (WPA.BAK doesn't exist) - proceed to next step
User is prompted to activate
User attempts to activate online
Activation fails (factory keys can't activate) - User is informed that the key must be changed
User enters key on sticker
User attempts to activate online
Activation is sucsessful - WPA.DBL is signed and copied as WPA.BAK - Have a nice day

Non-Dell: (Royalty OEM - Not yet activated)
WPA creates a hardware inventory and saves it as WPA.DBL
Using the OEMBIOS files WPA checks that the PC is manufactured by Dell and is using a factory key.
Verification fails - proceed to next step
WPA.DBL is compared to WPA.BAK to determine how much hadware has changed
Verification fails (WPA.BAK doesn't exist) - proceed to next step
User is prompted to activate
User attempts to activate online
Activation fails (factory keys can't activate) - User is informed that the key must be changed
User enters key on sticker
User attempts to activate online
Activation fails (Royalty OEM keys can't activate online) - User is informed that they must activate by phone
User attempts to activate by phone
Activation is sucsessful - WPA.DBL is signed and copied as WPA.BAK - Have a nice day

Non-Dell: (already activated)
WPA creates a hardware inventory and saves it as WPA.DBL
Using the OEMBIOS files WPA checks that the PC is manufactured by Dell and is using a factory key.
Verification fails - proceed to next step
WPA.DBL is compared to WPA.BAK to determine how much hadware has changed
Verification passes - Have a nice day

There are more steps involved that I am aware of (and probably many more that I am not aware of) but these show a comparison between different types of systems

ok, so does this mean that there is no way to use my slipstream copy of windows on any other pc but my own without having to activate, or get the oembios files from the pc first? You mention that if I use the key from the registry or the key in my dell cd I won't have to activate, but I am guessing that this is only for a dell pc, right?

i wish i had read this thread several days ago. a friend messed up his HP oem installation and had to reinstall it. the "rescue" partion would not work so he bought another xp home cd.
having the original "install" key might have saved him all the hassle of online activation.

sorry had net problems for awhile and had to have new line put in so i couldn't reply...

my original post was:
*****************************************************************************
i have a little problem and wonder if this method could help,

i have a HP LS1200 MCE system which went bang due to my kids and putting/spilling a drink on it

as my system is dead and out of warrenty i was wondering could i use a method like this to use my recovery disk on another machine as i like MCE2005 ?

i know the hardware would be different but is it possible as i own the software could i bastardise it to use on another machine ?

if it is possible could someone explain in plain laymens terms how im not too clued up on this sort of thing

***********************************************************************************

right i do have a i386 folder on recovery disk (cdr) and i can see all the files inside it and the i386 folder is 743mb

am hopeing i can still use it on another system so its not a complete loss

This post has been edited by Batfinks: May 28 2006, 04:49 PM