HOW to Slipstreaming from recovery i386 folder

[shimman]

hello,

i received a dell notebook pc with mce 2005 which did NOT come with a windows installation CD.

there is a recovery partition of 8gB size out of 40gB hdd, so i like to reclaim the space but since i don't have any cd i like to slipstream from the i386 directory.

what i have done is to create an iso image using nlite 1.06b, but i fased with few problems when i try to install it on my old desktop as a test.

1. during installation, serveral files were missing even though they were in *.cab files

2. after making cd with missing files, i ended up with a partial arabic or at least that's how it looked (more specifically wireless setup wizard, windows firewall, security center @ control panel & set program access & defaults)

2nd problem is the what i really like to fix as i cannot understand that language.

it seems like dell used arabic version of sp2 instead of english version & i cannot overwrite with english version of sp2 as the installer complained about that it has been integrated

can anyone suggest me how to fix these problems?

thanks

ps. i have a valid copy of oem version of winxp pro for my old desktop

Edited September 4, 2005 by shimman

[Bezalel]

What kind of CD is your XP-Pro CD, bios-locked or generic and what service pack? if the cd is bios locked you will have to delete (or modify the i386\winnt.sif file) and possibly replace the i386\oembios.??_ files. If the CD has no service pack you will have to slipstream SP2. If the CD has SP1 you can't use it. To determine what service pack is on the CD look for a file named WIN51IP.SP? in the root of the CD where ? represents the service pack level.

In order to create the CD set you MUST have the following files: MEDIACTR.CAB, NETFX.CAB, SONIC.CAB, and PLUS.CAB, you may also need OEMBIOS.BI_ (or .BIN), OEMBIOS.CA_ (or .CAT), OEMBIOS.DA_ (or .DAT), and OEMBIOS.SI_ (or .SIG).