Thanks... That would save on the time downloading, but add to the time installing windows, and significantly add to the maintenance I'd have to do. After looking at all the possible options for deploying windows XP, I think the best option I've come up with so far is: - windows discs (home and pro) copied to a network share and slipstreamed with as many drivers and updates as possible, which shouldn't be too hard to maintain - WinPE or BartPE disc with custom scripts to mount the network share, possibly backup the \documents and settings tree, format the drive, and call winnt32 to start the install With any luck, I'll be able to get a disc I can boot from CD or PXE on my linux server (which I have half working now...the image boots in vmware but then won't load networking for some reason)