How to Make a Win XP Bootable CD
- 1). Create a folder named "XPSetup" at the root directory of the C: drive.
- 2). Download and unzip the Boot Sector files from the download location provided (see Resources). Copy all files into the new XPSetup directory.
- 3). Right-click the "Start" button and select "Explorer" to open Windows Explorer. Locate the C:/i386 directory using Explorer. If the i386 directory can be found in the root, have a look in the Windows directory, which can be found in the root.
- 4). Highlight the /i386 directory and right-click on the folder.
- 5). Select "Copy" (not "Move") from the context menu and paste the folder into the C:/XPSetup directory. Do not drag and drop the folder. The folder structure should appear as C:/XPSetup/i386 once the folder has been pasted into the setup directory. Verify that the files have been copied and not moved by checking the i386 folder for its contents.
- 6). Open Notepad and create a new text file. In the new text file, type the word "Windows " with a capital "W" and the remaining letters lowercase. Include a trailing space, but do not include the quotes around the word "Windows." Press the "Enter" key to create a new line.
- 7). Save the file as "WIN51" with the quotes. Adding the quotes will prevent the .txt file extension from being added to the file name. You should now have a text file named WIN51 with Windows (including a trailing space) as its contents.
- 8). Copy and rename the WIN51 file, as specified for your operating system. For each XP service pack installed, a separate file will be created. Follow the guidelines below:
Windows XP Home, no service packs: Copy and rename the file WIN51IC.
Windows XP Home, Service Pack 1: In addition to the file named WIN51IC, copy and rename the WIN51 file "WIN51IC.SP1".
Windows XP Home, Service Pack 2: In addition to the files named WIN51IC and WIN51IC.SP1, copy and rename the WIN51 file "WIN51IC.SP2".
Windows XP Professional, no service packs: Copy and rename the file WIN51IP.
Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 1: In addition to the file named WIN51IP, copy and rename the WIN51 file "WIN51IP.SP1".
Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2: In addition to the files named WIN51IP and WIN51IP.SP1, copy and rename the WIN51 file "WIN51IP.SP2". - 9). Copy all WIN51 files into the C:/XPSetup directory.
- 10
Open the Easy CD Creator application and create a new CD project. - 11
Select "Burn" > "Bootable CD" from the top navigation menu. - 12
Change the Volume name for the new CD project according to the version of Windows XP:
Version - Label
Windows XP Home OEM - WXHOEM_EN
Windows XP Home SP 1 OEM - XRMHOEM_EN
Windows XP Home SP 1a and SP 2 OEM - X1AHOEM_EN
Windows XP Professional OEM - WXPOEM_EN
Windows XP Professional SP 1 OEM - XRMPOEM_EN
Windows XP Professional SP 1a and SP 2 OEM - X1APOEM_EN - 13
Copy all files below into the XPSetup directory to avoid reactivating Windows when the boot disk is used:
C:\windows\system32\oembios.bin
C:\windows\system32\oembios.dat
C:\windows\system32\oembios.sig
C:\windows\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\oembios.cat - 14
Add the entire C:/XPSetup folder to the Easy CD Creator interface. - 15
Insert a blank CD and click "Burn." A bootable CD for Windows XP is created. - 16
Test the bootable CD. Shut down the computer with the CD in the CD burner. Start Windows XP and press the F12 key during start-up. A list of boot options is provided. Select the "Boot from CD" option. The computer should boot up from the CD if all steps were properly performed.
Source...