OEM Windows XP SP3 ISO

PistolPete

PistolPete

PistolPete

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Hi All,

I need to rebuild an old laptop so I need to get my hands on an ISO of Windows XP SP3 (or any as I can always install SP3 after), but an OEM version.
I can't get a restore disk from Asus, they wont even talk to be now the laptop is out of warranty.

Is there anywhere legit to do this? I've googled and found hundreds of torrents but I dont touch torrents and I especially wouldn't trust them with an Operating System.


Any ideas??


Thanks


Pete
 
AFAIK there aren't any "official" OEM XP images, but if you can get hold of a retail XP ISO, you can transform it into a generic OEM version by changing the PID in the file \I386\setupp.ini, so that the last three characters read "OEM" instead of "000", and it should then work with the OEM product key on the CoA sticker. You'll need an ISO editor such as UltraISO, or alternatively you could use nLite and edit the file with Notepad before burning the disc or rebuilding the ISO.

The advantage of using a retail ISO as the source is that you can match it against the SHA-1 hash published by MS, so if you do acquire it through "unofficial" channels you can be certain it hasn't been tampered with (do this before editing setupp.ini of course).

XP Pro (SP3) SHA-1: 66AC289AE27724C5AE17139227CBE78C01EEFE40

XP Home (SP3) SHA-1: 5A6B959AD24D15DC7EBD85E501B83D105D1B37C6
 
You can turn any XP pro disc into any type of disc.

Ie you can convert an XP Pro Corp disc into a XP Pro Dell OEM disc

You just need the right files to do it
 
malachi said:
Would a similair method work for Windows XP Media Centre 2005?
Click to expand...

no. a normal XP disk doesn't contain the media centre files. and IIRC it was only OEM not retail. i might be wrong though. :p

Stoner81 said:
Can the same be done for Windows 7? This would be sooooo handy for me it is :D

Stoner81.
Click to expand...

you can modify any windows 7 ISO to install any edition (the exception being enterprise). you just need eicfg_removal_utility.zip from this page...

http://code.kliu.org/misc/winisoutils/

if you only have a DVD, you'll need to use something like imgburn to save the disk as an ISO, modify it, and then it to a new blank disk.

if installing from USB stick, you don't even need this tool. just browse to the \sources folder and delete ei.cfg
 
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^^ Yes I know that what I was referring to is there some way to convert a retail ISO in to a OEM one for Windows 7?

Thanks for the information though :)

Stoner81.
 
Stoner81 said:
^^ Well I never knew that :D very handy to know indeed cheers!
Click to expand...
One possible gotcha I should have mentioned - I've seen reports that some later XP OEM product keys also like the disc label to be correct, ie GRTMHOEM_EN for XP Home OEM, and GRTMPOEM_EN for XP Pro OEM (the retail disc labels are GRTMHFPP_EN and GRTMPFPP_EN respectively).

I've haven't personally encountered this, but it wouldn't hurt to change the disc label just in case, and it's easy enough to do using an ISO editor or with nLite.

It's only necessary to do any of this with XP setup discs, Vista and 7 discs are all the same (except for the ei.cfg file in 7), as mentioned above. :)
 
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nightmare99 said:
Really? Are you sure it is not the issue that some later keys would only be recognised by SP2c or SP3?
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That's not what I was talking about, but to be honest I don't know if the disc label issue is service-pack related - as I said, I haven't personally encountered it, and without trying each setup disc revision (original/SP1/SP2/SP3) with a range of OEM product keys it would be hard to establish a pattern.

It's probably documented somewhere, but given that an SP3 disc with the correct label is pretty much guaranteed to work with any product key*, I haven't really bothered investigating further.

*this is of course where someone says "I used an SP3 disc with the correct label, and my OEM product key was rejected..." :D
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
Technet?

Sure I have a login somewhere lol
Click to expand...
The XP ISOs made available by MSDN/Technet to their subscribers are the same as the retail disc - they don't provide either generic or manufacturer-specific OEM discs.

The MD5 and SHA1 hashes are freely available for anyone to see, though, so you can verify a retail disc ISO download obtained from elsewhere (which will probably itself have been obtained from MSDN/Technet in the first place).
 
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