How to Create a Bootable CD with Windows XP Professional and SP3 for Free
Windows XP is one of the most popular and stable operating systems ever released by Microsoft. However, if you have an old installation CD of Windows XP, you may not have the latest service pack (SP3) integrated into it. This means that you will have to install SP3 separately after installing Windows XP, which can be time-consuming and risky. Moreover, you may encounter problems with some drivers or hardware that require SP3 to work properly.
To avoid these issues, you can create a bootable CD with Windows XP Professional and SP3 already merged into it. This process is called slipstreaming, and it allows you to have an updated and ready-to-use Windows XP installation CD. You can also add other updates, drivers, or software to your slipstreamed CD if you want.
In this article, we will show you how to create a bootable CD with Windows XP Professional and SP3 for free. You will need the following items:
WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL create Bootable CD slipstreaming SP3
An existing copy of Windows XP Professional CD. You cannot use an OEM CD provided by your computer manufacturer (such as Dell, HP, etc).
A blank writable CD and a CD burner.
A network installation package of Windows XP SP3. You can download it from here. Do not use the Windows Update version of SP3.
A boot image of an existing Windows XP setup CD. You can extract it using a tool like ISOBuster.
A software to create and burn ISO files. You can use nLite, which is a free and easy-to-use tool for slipstreaming Windows XP.
Once you have all these items ready, follow these steps to create your bootable CD:
Step 1: Copy the Windows XP setup files to your hard drive
Create a folder on your hard drive where you will copy the Windows XP setup files. For example, C:\\\\XPSETUP. Then insert your Windows XP Professional CD into your CD drive and copy all the files and folders from the CD to the folder you created. You can use Windows Explorer or any file manager to do this.
Step 2: Slipstream Windows XP SP3
Open nLite and click Next. Then browse to the folder where you copied the Windows XP setup files and click Next again. nLite will scan the folder and identify the Windows version and service pack level.
On the next screen, select Service Pack as the task you want to perform and click Next. Then browse to the folder where you downloaded the network installation package of Windows XP SP3 and click Next again. nLite will start integrating SP3 into the setup files.
When nLite finishes slipstreaming SP3, click Next. On the next screen, you can optionally add other updates, drivers, or software to your slipstreamed CD. For example, you can add SATA drivers if your hard drive requires them. To do this, select Drivers as another task and click Next. Then click Insert and browse to the folder where you have your SATA drivers. Select them and click OK.
When you are done adding other components to your slipstreamed CD, click Next until you reach the Bootable ISO screen. Here you can create an ISO file of your slipstreamed CD that you can burn later.
Step 3: Create and burn the ISO file
On the Bootable ISO screen, click Make ISO. Then choose a name and location for your ISO file and click Save. nLite will create an ISO file of your slipstreamed CD.
When nLite finishes creating the ISO file, click Next and then Finish to exit nLite.
Now you have an ISO file of your bootable CD with Windows XP Professional and SP3 integrated into it. You can burn this ISO file to a blank CD using any burning software that supports ISO files, such as Nero or ImgBurn.
To burn the ISO file with Nero, open Nero Burning ROM and select Recorder > Burn Image. Then browse to the ISO file you created with nLite and click Open. Then insert a blank CD into your CD burner and click Burn.
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