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Question

Most Efficient Means To Burn XP Updates To Disc?

Feb 15, 2014 11:39AM PST

I'm using Windows 7 32&64bit between a couple of desktops that work fine for what I need them for except older PC Games that I've accumulated over the years that are oriented for the XP system but never had the time to really start enjoying them until now. Emulators to use with W 7 do not work well most of the time for these and/or require a lot of tweaks. I have a desktop with XP installed that is great for these games but with support to end in a couple of months & "all" operating systems do need eventual clean installs over time, I want to burn all the XP updates to disc that are on this particular desktop. I do have Microsofts's Service Packs 1,2 & 3 Discs.

I've searched the internet some that require a lot of time consuming steps but feel that there is a procedure that will not make this task daunting.

Appreciate any help.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
So far, no. For many reasons.
Feb 15, 2014 9:02PM PST

Let's say you were able to collect and put KB10000 to KB10199 onto a CD. Even then reinstalling each, even with a script would be a lot of work as your install script would not know something called "dependencies."

So why not get the OS in the shape you want it and then back that up? I use CLONEZILLA for that as I can back up the drive to a folder on an external HDD. If I wanted that folder on DVDs then we use some other app to break it up and do that.
Bob

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Cloning
Feb 16, 2014 12:46PM PST

Hard drives are not reliable as they were years ago, having just gone thru 3 failures in the past 2 years on "new" purchased. Back up of files appears to work but no matter what duplicate/clone for an entire os program out there that I have read posts about it, it does fail. Disc. have time limitations but drives have too many variables for failure. SSD'S unfortunately do not play well with XP.

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Which is why I noted to get the image later to DVD.
Feb 16, 2014 1:51PM PST

You sound like you want ACRONIS.
Bob

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You're right
Feb 16, 2014 10:35PM PST

You're right, on the average HDDs are MORE reliable today than years ago. The Average Mean Time to Failure for drives has gone up quite a bit over the years, but you've been hit with what's known as hindsight bias.

People always say how electronics from say the 1970s were so much better than today's and they often cite some stereo system they bought in 1973 and are still using today as proof. Ignoring the strata of landfills across the nation which are littered with cheap transistor radios and other e-waste from that same era. It's easy to forget that the stereo system bought in 1973 would cost several hundred, maybe even thousands, of dollars today adjusted for inflation. You buy a stereo system today for a couple grand, if you're still alive in 2050 you'll probably be able to pass that thing down to your great grand kids. It also ignores the standard bell curve that all mass produced items are subject to. Some will fail almost immediately, the vast majority will fail within a certain window of time, then there will always be a few that just keep chugging along and refuse to die. Most laptop batteries are rated for a maximum of 300 cycles, but when I worked as a hardware repair tech, a couple of times I saw batteries with 500+ cycles already and still holding a charge like they were brand new. I actually remember one battery with over 900 cycles that was just starting to show signs of being consumed. That person was extremely lucky.

Anyway, your argument is based on a faulty premise, because HDDs are actually more reliable today than before and there's objective evidence to back it up. So that being said, create multiple backups. Get some quality DVDs and burn an image to those, store them in precisely the conditions needed to preserve the longevity of the chemicals on the recordable side and also create a copy of the image on an external HDD. Maybe two external HDDs and two sets of DVDs. Depends on how important it is you not lose anything. Generally my experience has been that the more people make a fuss about how important it is not to lose anything, the more likely it is once they make the backup they immediately forget about it. They move on to a new computer and the backup becomes obsolete and unusable and all those files that absolutely needed to be saved don't even make the transition to the new computer. Basically there's an inverse relation between a person's paranoia about backups and their actual need for said backup.

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So, With your background
Feb 17, 2014 8:55AM PST

Jimmy
With your back ground, how can I eliminate setting up another external hard drive to do a complete backup/clone of my current XP system for the sole purpose to copy all MS updates thus far downloaded? How can I copy these that are already on the desktop's drive?

Thanks

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Answer
Time for you to go "Virtual"
Feb 16, 2014 11:24AM PST

Download and install Oracle's Virtual Box. Setup a virtual hard drive for XP in it. Install XP, then load service pack 1 or 2, then load service pack 3, then get all the updates from Microsoft. Do the activation. Save the virtual hard drive and close VirtualBox. Find the virtual hard drive file which contains XP fully updated and burn that single large file to a DVD, or several DVD's.

You will then always have it available, fully updated, never needing activation again, ready to be copied onto a hard drive and used in VirtualBox. It also makes it transportable between computers without messing with activation again, so long as that computer has VirtualBox on it. If you move to Linux, you can install VirtualBox there also and run XP as the virtual hard drive while in Linux.

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Virtual Box
Feb 16, 2014 1:16PM PST

Would have been wonderful if I knew this before loading XP Home, XP Pro 32 and XP PRO 64 on drives of their own. OS'S were not bad but the number of updates are huge!