[Help] - restore cd frustrations

[mat7h3w]

I own an HP Pavilion a1250n PC. It came with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 preinstalled. It also came with a rather large amount of useless garbage that I will never use in the form of bundled software. HP, like many other prebuild system companies, sadly did not provide me an actual full version set of installation discs for my OS. Instead I was provided the ability to create my own CD-R restore disks.

These are used, in theory, to return the machine to its original factory condition. However, they are also quite useless for anyone who likes to customize their system, including the use of a 2nd OS like a distro of Linux. These "restore CDs" are basically full unattended installation discs for my OS. However, they are full of garbage software that I have no desire to use, and because of how they are setup, I have absolutely no control over the installation process. As such, I cannot setup partitions or even attempt to configure my system for the use of an additional OS.

My question is, is there any way to rip a standard full installation of my OS from these restore discs? Which files on them would I need to attempt doing so, if this is even possible? I'd like to completely do away with the unattended installation, and just get a pure XP MCE 2005 installation if possible. This way I can customize the setup of my PC to my choosing instead of simply accepting the rather poor setup choices that are forced on me by the restore discs.

If it is helpful at all, here is a listing of the files that are contained on each disc;

On Disc 1 of the restore CD set -

a folder callled i386

a folder called preload

then the following files

WIN51.B2

WIN51IC.B2

WIN51IP.B2

WINBOM.INI

SAVEFILE.DIR

protect.ed

GRAPH

GRAPH16

NTFS

SVGA

WIN51

WIN51IC

WIN51IP

Folder.htt

WIN51.RC1

WIN51IC.RC1

WIN51.RC2

WIN51IC.RC2

WIN51IP.RC2

BLOCK.RIN

HPCD.sys

Master.log

Disc 2 of the set contains

a folder called hp

a folder called i386

a folder called preload

a folder called tools

and the following files

HPCD.sys

Master.log

Any help on this would be appreciated. If it's not for some reason possible to just rip the OS itself from these CDs to make a pure set of full install MCE 2005 XP discs, would anyone know of any better suggestion to my problem?

Title Edited - Please follow new posting rules from now on.

--Zxian

[jaclaz]

Read here:

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=16343

(and given links)

For a list of minimal needed files, this is a good start:

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=102

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=104

jaclaz

Edited March 18, 2006 by jaclaz