OEM OS and reinstall advice

DirtyJester

DirtyJester

DirtyJester

Caporegime
Joined
17 Oct 2006
Posts
25,703
Ok I bet this has been asked a million times before but yes just hit that counter one more time from me...

My better half very kindly brought me home a computer of her friend in work whose son has very kindly filled with all sorts of virus, popups and heaven only knows what all else. I've tried my limited best to remove stuff without much success and really the only thing to do is format and start again. Now the case carries the Microsoft sticker with serial key etc but there are no disks and no backed up version on HD, so my answer is how can I go about doing a clean install ? Cheers
 
I'm afraid that's unlikely to work out of the box... this ISO mentioned above will be the "retail" version, and your OEM key from the CoA sticker will probably be rejected.

You should be able to fix it by using an ISO editor (eg the trial version of UltraISO if you don't have one), and alter the text file setupp.ini in the \i386 folder of the ISO so that the last three digits of the PID read "OEM" instead of "000". Whilst you're at it, change the volume label from GRTMHFPP_EN to GRTMHOEM_EN, as I've seen suggestions that this might also cause issues with later XP discs.

You could also use nLite to rebuild a custom ISO with the necessary amendments, as well as any other tweaks you might fancy.

Before you do any of the above though, and assuming you're acquiring the ISO through "unofficial" channels, check the SHA1 hash of the download to make sure you don't get any little hidden booby prizes - it should be 5A6B959AD24D15DC7EBD85E501B83D105D1B37C6 for the SP3 disc.

Another option would be to try finding a manufacturer-specific OEM ISO from one of the aforementioned unofficial sources, in which case you wouldn't have to make any alterations, but the snag is that the correct SHA1 checksums aren't publicly available, so you'd be trusting the uploader not to have some fun at your expense. :)
 
Ok Captain cheers for that, I checked the SHA1 hash and its like for like but as you say this copy is retail and not OEM, tbh I really doubt I could be bothered with all the extra hassle you mention above esp. as this is just a favour, one I didnt even offer to do. Damn you think there would be an easier way to sort this esp. when its a valid system and Microsoft OS.
 
DirtyJester said:
Damn you think there would be an easier way to sort this esp. when its a valid system and Microsoft OS.
Click to expand...
Honestly, it's not that hard, just a couple of minutes using UltraISO... hardly anything compared with the time it'll take you installing it, and then running all the updates (XP is a time-consuming nightmare these days, particularly if you're adding all the .NET stuff).

Actually, you could use nLite to slipstream most of the updates and addons, as well as taking the opportunity to alter setupp.ini, so you'd be killing two birds with one stone. :)
 
Also got an old win xp home 32 bit oem disk if you need one mate, give me a shout if its required and i can whack it in the post for you, should reach you pretty quickly.
 
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