Masterclass: Break free from disaster

How long does it take to reinstall Windows? Half an hour? Have you included the time it takes to download and install all outstanding Windows updates, the various hardware drivers, plus other bits and bobs, such as Internet Explorer 7? All this could double your original estimate and that’s without even thinking about reinstalling software or setting up Windows.

In this Masterclass, we’re going to show you how to create a customised Windows XP install disc that includes the latest Service Pack 3 (SP3), so it’s fully up to date and includes drivers for your main components, peripherals and, if you want them, Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Media Player 11. This is a process called slipstreaming, and reinstalling XP from a slipstreamed disc saves time and hassle in equal measure. Here’s how to do it.

What you’ll need
This Masterclass only works with proper Windows XP installation discs, so if your PC came with a recovery disc or a recovery partition on the hard disk, then you’re out of luck. You’ll also need a copy of the full Windows XP Service Pack 3 file ­ all 316MB of it ­ which can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/downloads.

We’ll be using a free program called Nlite, which does all the hard work of integrating everything and creating the final disc. Get it from www.nliteos.com/download.html ­ choose the Installer link and pick version 1.4.5, even if it’s still in beta (the test stage).

Nlite allows the integration of other programs onto an XP installation disc, so they’re installed alongside Windows automatically. To add Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11), visit www.winaddons.com/n lite-addons ­ click each link in turn from the alphabetical list, then choose one of the download links to save each CAB file to your hard disk.

XP was released in 2001, which means the drivers included on the original installation disc aren’t just few and far between, but also woefully out of date. If you’re willing to add hundreds of megabytes to the size of your installation disc, which will probably necessitate saving to a DVD rather than a CD, then visit the website www.driverpacks.net/DriverPacks to add your choice of graphics, sound, motherboard chipset, mass storage (for newer Serial ATA (Sata) and Raid hard disks) and network (both wired and wireless) drivers to your installation disc.

Again, these will be installed automatically during the Windows setup process ­ it’ll slow things down a little, but will still work out quicker than installing them all separately afterwards.

The drivers are integrated independently of Nlite, so you’ll need the Driverpacks Base file to do the dirty work for you. Click the link and make sure the file version is at least 8.04 before downloading ­ this will ensure that it works with Windows XP Service Pack 3.

Once the Driverpacks Base has been downloaded, you can pick and choose which other Driverpacks you want. Click an entry to see which devices are supported by that download ­ there are two or three choices for sound cards and graphics adapters, so be sure to pick the ones that match your PC.