Recovery disc or Full disc?

Hello, I've been trying to use nLite on my XP Media Center Edition (that came with my 1501) disc. However, I could never get it under 2GBs, no matter what....I've seen them go down to 300MBs...
Also, I noticed references to Dell on the CD, a few file names actually.
I want a full disc, is this a recvery disc? If not, where can I get a full disc?

 

OK, I did some reading and that is way to big for a Windows XP disc, but now, where can I get a disk, or make one?

 

it might just be an xp disk, but with a ton of dell bloatware on it. post a picture of the contents of the cd in this forum, and i can tell you what it is!

 

OK, here it is, would there be a way to extract the Windows XP MCE iso, without the bloat?

 

yep thats a full cd. as you said nlite is the best way to slim down the iso image, i got my iso down to about 200mb, making my system super fast. There are many guides online on what components to remove, for example, I removed all languages and keyboards (except english) and all drivers. This alone halved the iso size. If you dont want to use nlite and want to do it manually, I'll try. Post pics of the contents, and oem folders.

 

I removed every thing, except Direct X and MS Paint.
It still is over 2GBs.
The OEM Folder is 1.91GB...

 

first thing is to split your current hd into two partitions. Then delete the oem folder on the iso and burn it onto a cd. Then try to install on the new partition, it should work, however i offer no guarantess, as I have never had a dell system and so do not know how tightly dell integrates its own programs into the iso file. If it does not work then you have not lost anything, you should still be able to boot into the one your using now.

 

Would a VM be ok?
So, if it installs, its fine, I won't need to activate it (I don't want to be a pirate).

 

yep vmware should be ok although i'd use microsoft virtual pc myself

 

OK, Thanks!

 

I just made one....It's 400MBs.
If the iso boots, will that be enough to tell if it will work?
I dont want to have to install it twice.

 

if the iso fully installs properly, and once rebooted loads a fully functional xp, then yes. Go the full way

 

That sucks, I have to install it twice now.
How long does an XP install take?

 

shudn't take longer than about 25 minutes considering your iso size and the speed of your hd. there's no rush lol

 

Ok, thats easy

 

OK, I tried it in a VM(virtualbox) and somehow windows(the real one) was wrecked..
I booted and it says missing or corrupted file
system32\hal.dll
WTH? I just reinstalled Windows.