Many files in the Windows XP installation CD are rarely used, even never used, but they take up a certain amount of CD space. Through the method described in this article, we can make a Windows XP installation disk that is less than 100 megabytes less than the original CD. With this 100 megabytes of space, we can add a lot of utilities to make the Windows XP installation disk more powerful! Below, we take Windows XP Pro as an example, and use the installed Windows XP Pro as the operating platform.
■Step 1 Prepare the required software
Windows XP Pro installation CD, WinHex (a very good hex file editing and disk editing software, download address :http://www.onlinedown.Net/soft/1509.htm
), CDImage (a gadget produced by Microsoft to create a CD image (ISO) file, download address: http ://antivirus.pchome.Net
), BbIE (a small software used to get the CD boot file, download address: http://downloadsx-1.planetmirror.com/pub/nu2files/bbIE10 .zip
).
■Step 2 Get the files needed for installation
First put the Windows XP Pro installation CD into the CD-ROM drive, then enter Windows in the Windows Run dialog box. The path of the XP Pro installer is followed by the installation parameter "/noreboot", which is "X:\\Setup.exe /noreboot", where X is the drive letter of the installation CD. It should be noted that the selected installation type must be “new installation”. In addition, when the installation is to select the installation option, you should click the “Advanced Options” button in the window to enter the custom Windows XP options window, which will “from the installation. The check box in front of the CD Copy All Installation Files option is selected, as shown in Figure 1.
1 set installation options
due to the use /noreboot installation parameters, so the installation program will automatically return to the desktop after the files are copied. At this point, two folders named $WIN_NT$.~BT and $WIN_NT$.~LS can be found in the system root directory.
■Step 3 Adjust the files required for installation
In the system root directory, rename the $WIN_NT$.~LS folder to Install, and $WIN_NT$ The .~BT folder is renamed to BOOT (uppercase) and the folder is moved to the Install folder. Now enter the Install folder, delete the SIZE.SIF file, then enter the BOOT folder, delete the two files Migrate.inf and Winnt.sif. Of course, in order to achieve unattended installation of Windows XP, we can also use our own Winnt.sif file to replace the original file.
If you want to make out of the CD-ROM will appear "Press any key to boot from CD" prompt at the start, then we can put the original installation CD-ROM I386 folder of the file copied to the bootfix.bin Inside the BOOT folder. Finally, copy the SPNOTES, WIN51, WIN51IP, WIN51IP.SP1 files from the original installation CD to the Install folder.
■Step 4 Obtain and modify the boot file
Enter the directory of the Bbie file at the command prompt, enter the "Bbie X:" command to get the CD boot file. The obtained boot file is named Image1.bin and saved in the BbIE folder.
Start WinHex, open the Image1.bin file in the BbIE folder, use the "Replace Text" function in the WinHex "Search" menu, replace i386 in the file with BOOT (uppercase), replace 1 Times, exit after saving, as shown in Figure 2.
2 rewrite the boot files
start WinHex, open the folder BOOT Setupldr.bin file and then use WinHex "Search" menu in the "replace text" feature, the Replace i386 in the file with BOOT (uppercase), replace it 4 times in total, and exit after saving.
■ Step 5
produced image file into the directory CDImage at the command prompt, type the following command to generate ISO file:
CDimage -l MyXP -bc:\\BbIE\\image1.bin -h -n -m -oc:\\install c:\\Myxp.iso
Here "c:\\BbIE\\image1.bin" is the CD boot The full path to the file, "C:\\Myxp.iso" is the path to save the ISO CD image file. The detailed parameter description of CDimage can be obtained by directly inputting CDimage.exe (without parameters).
now, we'll get a CD image file named Myxp.iso in the root directory of the C drive, and its size is only 448MB, 560MB compared to 112MB of the original installation CD less! Finally, use Nero or Alcohol 120% software to burn it to a disc, and you're done!