XP ISO downloads

Before I begin, I want to stress that I'm looking for completely legal methods. I'm not looking for cracks or patches of anything. Okaydokes.


So, my cousin has an old Dell Inspiron 1505 that runs XP Media Center 2005. A few days ago the hard drive picked the perfect time to up an die. Clicks of doom, unreadable when using several enclosures, the works. Anyway, managed to get a 5400rpm Hitachi that wasn't too insultingly priced (he's not too picky or techy, so he doesn't mind the 5400rpm) and was ready to install. When I asked if he has the recovery discs, he says he lost them.

So, I'm wondering if there's anyplace to download the XP discs and activate them with the XP license on the laptop's sticker. Google turned up zilch, so I'm assuming there's no way, but I just want to make sure before I proceed further.


So, short edition: Looking for Windows XP .isos, so I can reinstall it on my cousin's computer.

 

Will take it one step further: once you have the iso, is there a (better) way to append SP3 to it before installing it? Ideally you'd just pop the cd in and install XP, and it would already have SP3 on it, which saves a lot of time.

Mine situation is a tiny bit different, I have my original XP cd, but it's only got SP2. I'm trying to make an iso out of it to stick on a USB stick since those are far better than a cd.

 

I don't belive there ever has been any kind of official download for OEM/Retail XP images. MSDN exists but I don't think those images are compatible. Add the fact that you'd need Media Center Edition install discs, I find that almost impossible.

To add SP3 into the existing .iso image, the code word you need is slipstreaming. Google that and you'll find instructions.

 

Damn. Well, that's unfortunate.

Hmm. Maybe I can fumble through some kind of flavor of Linux.

 

I'm saying this as a ...umm... Linux fanboy:
Don't do it unless you (and your friend) know what replacing Windows with Linux means for the user!

It's true Linux can do most, if not all, tasks that average Joe wants it to do but the way of doing it is often different. There are mount points instead of drive letters, GUI's and preferred file formats differ and so on. None of that is a real problem but according to my experience people who switch to Linux not because they are interested in Linux itself but only because they want it to be a cheap Windows replacement won't be satisfied with it because what they expect vastly differs from what they get.
Linux is not complicated but it's different. And you have to accept that if you want it to be your friend.

If you can revive the old HDD one last time copy an image of it to the new HDD. This way you won't need to reenter the license key. From a Linux Live CD you can use ddrescue or dd_rescue (yes, that's two different programs) to copy such an image. There are also Windows tools for that task but you certainly know them better than I do.

 

It is very easy to do that, in fact, i just did it last week (cd > nlite > sp3 > usbkey install) on a dell optiplex with no cd drive. Just download nlite. it will copy the i386 folder from the xp cd into a temp folder. then download SP3 from microsoft. when you run nlite you can integrate sp3. It literally took 10 seconds to integrate sp3 into the iso.
nlite also gives you other options like adding drivers, other MS hotfixes, specifying install options, default language, etc. when its done you can have it burn the ISO to cd or just save to file.
Save the ISO as a file, then download flashboot (portable). flashboot will wipe your flash drive and install the iso to it (this takes a little while). when your ready to install, boot the PC from the flash drive and install xp. because of the way flashboot works, it formats the PC's hdd as Fat32. After the XP install files are copied to the PC and the PC reboots it will give you the option to format the drive to NTFS. After that it is smooth sailing.

I sort of did this last week, while doing the usb install as posted above. I was installing to a dell computer and didn't have the OS reinstall disc. After a ton of reading i learned that their really isn't any difference between XP versions (corporate, retail, and OEM). supposedly the only difference is a key coding in the /I386/setupp.ini file on the CD which tells it which CD it is. with this info you "should" be able to change your retail cd into a OEM cd and use your dell COA.
Post #8 here describes the coding, and a post here lists the OEM codes (dell, etc..).
using Nlite you can copy the cd to a folder, edit the setupp.ini file and supposedly change the pid code so that when you finalize your xp iso, you should be able to install with the LEGIT COA sticker on the side of the laptop.
I know you were looking for an ISO to download, but if you own a XP CD, you can try what i described so that you can use your dell COA.

I say this is "supposed" to work, but i was never able to get it to accept the COA key on the dell i was working on, even with the correct pid code. what ended up working for me was using another Dell XP restore cd i had, and just running it through nlite so i could integrate sp3, and then installing it from usb. The legit Dell COA sticker on the side of the case worked fine with the other dell OS recover cd i had.