Can you create an XP image on a VM before installation?

darael

darael

darael

Soldato
Joined
10 Jul 2010
Posts
7,231
I'll explain what I want to do:- Install XP on a Virtual Machine, install just the Windows Updates and MS Office, then image it to a DVD and install drivers after it has imaged to the actual machine.

The reason for this, is purely to save time - the computer isn't the fastest, and I reckon I could save about 2 hours of waiting on Windows Updates.

Right now, the physcial machine isn't with me - hence me trying to speed things up.

I should mention I will be using VirtualBox to setup XP.
 
I reckon you'll hit loads of problems without some V2P app.

The "hardware" in the VM will not be the same as the physical machine and it may not even boot. Your best bet is to download all of the drivers from the motherboard manufacturers site and install them and hope for the best.

Personally I'd not bother, you're likely to end up with an unstable build.
 
Any way I can speed up the process of Windows Updates? I'll probably have to dedicate 2 hours to download and install those. :mad:
 
darael said:
Any way I can speed up the process of Windows Updates? I'll probably have to dedicate 2 hours to download and install those. :mad:
Click to expand...
XP is a miserable, time-consuming chore to install these days... 2 hours is optimistic, especially if you're going to include the various .NET frameworks together with all their associated updates. The quickest way would probably be to use nLite to create a custom install disc, and incorporate a post-SP3 update pack to slipstream as many hotfixes and addins as possible.

The Onepiece update pack includes all the .NET stuff and many other things besides, but you'll need to burn the end product to a DVD as it won't fit on a regular-sized CD, unlike the vanilla XP setup.
 
CaptainCrash said:
XP is a miserable, time-consuming chore to install these days... 2 hours is optimistic, especially if you're going to include the various .NET frameworks together with all their associated updates. The quickest way would probably be to use nLite to create a custom install disc, and incorporate a post-SP3 update pack to slipstream as many hotfixes and addins as possible.

The Onepiece update pack includes all the .NET stuff and many other things besides, but you'll need to burn the end product to a DVD as it won't fit on a regular-sized CD, unlike the vanilla XP setup.
Click to expand...
I have an XP CD with SP3 slipstreamed.

The majority of the updates aren't so bad to install - it's the .NET ones which I need, and I know are going to take forever. :mad:

So you're saying I can slipstream the .NET updates to a DVD? Even if I just got those on, it'd save me an eternity! The updates would be a bonus.
 
darael said:
So you're saying I can slipstream the .NET updates to a DVD? Even if I just got those on, it'd save me an eternity! The updates would be a bonus.
Click to expand...
Yes, exactly - nLite is pretty self-explanatory, just point it at the downloaded update pack at the appropriate prompt and let it do its stuff. You can also slipstream drivers, remove stuff you think you won't need (this a waste of time at best in my experience, and can often lead to problems later on unless you're very careful), customise regional and network settings and so on. You complete the process by either creating an ISO or burning it straight to a CD (or DVD if necessary).

bledd. said:
autopatcher
Click to expand...
Autopatcher (or alternatively WSUS Offline Update) is handy if you need to save on download time, if for example the target machine has a slow Internet connection, but it doesn't really help much with the problem of a slow PC - most machines running XP these days will have a weak CPU, a small/slow hard drive and limited RAM, and even installing updates offline can be painful to say the least (the .NET frameworks and all their associated updates are particular offenders). It would probably be useful for MS Office updates though, plus any hotfixes etc missing from the slipstreamed update pack.
 
darael said:
I'll explain what I want to do:- Install XP on a Virtual Machine, install just the Windows Updates and MS Office, then image it to a DVD and install drivers after it has imaged to the actual machine.

The reason for this, is purely to save time - the computer isn't the fastest, and I reckon I could save about 2 hours of waiting on Windows Updates.

Right now, the physcial machine isn't with me - hence me trying to speed things up.

I should mention I will be using VirtualBox to setup XP.
Click to expand...
You could install XP on your VM, install whatever needs installing then run sysprep and take an image of the VM using whatever you prefer (ghost, driveimage, WIM image using imagex etc etc). This would then install on any hardware, you could also include the drivers in the sysprep answer file for them to be automatically installed too.
 
You could do what I did to speed installs up

BUT you have to install windows and update first :(

C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download

Windows download all updates to this location before installing

What I did was installed windows once and then ran windows updates
each time I run the updates BEFORE I reboot
I copy out the contents of this folder to a temp folder

I run updates again until all are done each time adding more files to my temp folder , when I am finished I create a self extracting exe (using winrar) with
all windows updates in it.

I get a new machine I just install windows , run updates once (to update updater) , then after that I extract all my updates to the above mentioned folder , run updates again and it does not have to download anything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom