An article on PC Mgazine (
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1747010,00.asp ), discusses
building an SP2 Recovery Disk. It mentions the need for the Original
Windows XP CD and goes on to say that getting it may be the difficult
part because manufacturers often substitute their own recovery disks.

This made me realize that I don't have a real Microsoft XP CD for my
Acer Tablet. The article goes on to say "contact Microsoft and ask
for one (you did pay for it, after all). In most cases, the company
will provide it for free, no questions asked".

This is easier said than done. Anybody - Chris ? - have a way to
request an original XP Install CD? Thanks!

Not that I know of, when you've purchased a computer from a manufacturer.
The Recovery CD/DVD is what is normally furnished by the OEM, customized to
your machine. That said, I really wouldn't mess with attempting to create a
"slipstream" version from that, since the CD/DVD is keyed to your particular
machine (the OEM required tag usually on the bottom of the Tablet PC). If
you had a "real" XP CD, you could not use the Tablet product ID license with
it.

What I've done, and know others have also, is use a third-party program
(Acronis True Image, in my case) to save an image (A) of the original OEM
install, then another when I've got the basic OEM plus Windows XP SP2 plus
Tablet PC Edition 2005 installed and functioning the way I want it (B).

I also have incremental images with Office 2003 installed and updated (C),
and a full complement of the other programs I run (D), and then I can run
beta software or experiment all I want, with the capabilities to bounce
among the A-D images in a matter of about 11 minutes. True Image (as do
some other such programs) offers a boot option prior to booting into Windows
to select any of the saved images for loading.

The program I use also enables you to save the images on a different LAN
machine, so if I want to blow away the hard drive totally (one of my Tablets
did have a bad hard drive, and went back to the factory for seven days), I
just do the "basic" OEM install off the DVD, install True Image again after
I'm networked, and then pull the images back for the one I want.

Windows XP Pro (the base Tablet PC operating system) is pretty darn
resilient, and rarely needs to be "replaced" - except when we super-stress
it. Minor issues usually can be handled by System Restore and an
appropriate Restore Point. 8-)
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone


"Free" <Free-spam-me-not@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:4ftfu0ticmf9mv09umml246aq2780k8c3s@4ax.com...
> An article on PC Mgazine (
> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1747010,00.asp ), discusses
> building an SP2 Recovery Disk. It mentions the need for the Original
> Windows XP CD and goes on to say that getting it may be the difficult
> part because manufacturers often substitute their own recovery disks.
>
> This made me realize that I don't have a real Microsoft XP CD for my
> Acer Tablet. The article goes on to say "contact Microsoft and ask
> for one (you did pay for it, after all). In most cases, the company
> will provide it for free, no questions asked".
>
> This is easier said than done. Anybody - Chris ? - have a way to
> request an original XP Install CD? Thanks!
>
>

Thanks, Chris.

One of the things I would like to do with an XP CD is to install the
CMDCONS command line recovery tool. I have this on my desktops, and
it amkes me feel better if I can boot to a DOS-like environment. Is
that possible without the XP CD?

"Chris H." <winxpnews********.com> wrote:
>Not that I know of, when you've purchased a computer from a manufacturer.
>The Recovery CD/DVD is what is normally furnished by the OEM, customized to
>your machine. That said, I really wouldn't mess with attempting to create a
>"slipstream" version from that, since the CD/DVD is keyed to your particular
>machine (the OEM required tag usually on the bottom of the Tablet PC). If
>you had a "real" XP CD, you could not use the Tablet product ID license with
>it.
>
>What I've done, and know others have also, is use a third-party program
>(Acronis True Image, in my case) to save an image (A) of the original OEM
>install, then another when I've got the basic OEM plus Windows XP SP2 plus
>Tablet PC Edition 2005 installed and functioning the way I want it (B).
>
>I also have incremental images with Office 2003 installed and updated (C),
>and a full complement of the other programs I run (D), and then I can run
>beta software or experiment all I want, with the capabilities to bounce
>among the A-D images in a matter of about 11 minutes. True Image (as do
>some other such programs) offers a boot option prior to booting into Windows
>to select any of the saved images for loading.
>
>The program I use also enables you to save the images on a different LAN
>machine, so if I want to blow away the hard drive totally (one of my Tablets
>did have a bad hard drive, and went back to the factory for seven days), I
>just do the "basic" OEM install off the DVD, install True Image again after
>I'm networked, and then pull the images back for the one I want.
>
>Windows XP Pro (the base Tablet PC operating system) is pretty darn
>resilient, and rarely needs to be "replaced" - except when we super-stress
>it. Minor issues usually can be handled by System Restore and an
>appropriate Restore Point. 8-)

Wouldn't we all? 8-) Nope. The problem is several-fold. First you cannot
install from the OEM DVD/CD because there's a "newer" version of the
operating system already installed (XP SP2), and even an integrated XP SP2
CD (via an MSDN subscription) is "older." Been there, failed. 8-) What is
it specifically you can't do from within Windows?
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone


"Free" <Free-spam-me-not@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:hqetu0lrq620pk1njv4srgdt6fi7hrbt3o@4ax.com...
> Thanks, Chris.
>
> One of the things I would like to do with an XP CD is to install the
> CMDCONS command line recovery tool. I have this on my desktops, and
> it amkes me feel better if I can boot to a DOS-like environment. Is
> that possible without the XP CD?
>
> "Chris H." <winxpnews********.com> wrote:
>>Not that I know of, when you've purchased a computer from a manufacturer.
>>The Recovery CD/DVD is what is normally furnished by the OEM, customized
>>to
>>your machine. That said, I really wouldn't mess with attempting to create
>>a
>>"slipstream" version from that, since the CD/DVD is keyed to your
>>particular
>>machine (the OEM required tag usually on the bottom of the Tablet PC). If
>>you had a "real" XP CD, you could not use the Tablet product ID license
>>with
>>it.
>>
>>What I've done, and know others have also, is use a third-party program
>>(Acronis True Image, in my case) to save an image (A) of the original OEM
>>install, then another when I've got the basic OEM plus Windows XP SP2 plus
>>Tablet PC Edition 2005 installed and functioning the way I want it (B).
>>
>>I also have incremental images with Office 2003 installed and updated (C),
>>and a full complement of the other programs I run (D), and then I can run
>>beta software or experiment all I want, with the capabilities to bounce
>>among the A-D images in a matter of about 11 minutes. True Image (as do
>>some other such programs) offers a boot option prior to booting into
>>Windows
>>to select any of the saved images for loading.
>>
>>The program I use also enables you to save the images on a different LAN
>>machine, so if I want to blow away the hard drive totally (one of my
>>Tablets
>>did have a bad hard drive, and went back to the factory for seven days), I
>>just do the "basic" OEM install off the DVD, install True Image again
>>after
>>I'm networked, and then pull the images back for the one I want.
>>
>>Windows XP Pro (the base Tablet PC operating system) is pretty darn
>>resilient, and rarely needs to be "replaced" - except when we super-stress
>>it. Minor issues usually can be handled by System Restore and an
>>appropriate Restore Point. 8-)
>