How to Create a Bootable Windows CD after Slip Streaming a Service Pack

written by Ian Matthews June 3, 2005

There are many articles which reference slip streaming and many of them provide the basic instruction. However, most of them do not tell you how to make the resulting Windows + SP CD bootable; the process below will:

copy the entire Windows CD to a folder on your PC (i.e. c:\origdisk )
extract the contents of the service pack to a different folder (i.e. c:\spack (see below for download info)
1. Make sure you are working with the “redistributable” or “network installation” version of the service pack. You need the entire service pack to make this work
2. SP1 and 2 for WinXP and SP1 for Windows 2003 allow you to extract the files using the /X parameter at the command prompt (i.e. c:\WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe /X
3. if you can not figure out how to extract the files run the executable with a /? (i.e. c:\WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe /? and it should present you with a dialog box of extraction options
at a command prompt (i.e. click START, RUN, type CMD, and click OK), change into the UPDATE folder in the service pack and type UPDATE /INTEGRATE:C:\PATH_TO_ORIGINAL. Following our example, it would look like:
click to enlargeNOTE: Previous service packs (like SP1 for Windows XP and all Windows 2000 service packs) required /S instead of /INTEGRATE

This will take some time to complete.

click to enlarge

Everything up to this point is dead easy and you can simply copy the resulting files onto a CD and be on your way with just one limitation… the disk will not be bootable. If you want it to be bootable, continue through the next steps.
Download IsoBuster from www.smart-projects.com (or just click HERE). This tool will let us extract the hidden boot loader from the original Windows CD.Run IsoBuster and extract CD, SESSION 1, TRACK 01, CD NAME, BOOTABLE CD, MICROSOFT CORPORATION.IMG by right clicking on the file name
click to enlarge

Put the file somewhere handy like your desktop. For the purpose of this example, I will assume it is extracted to C:\MICROSOFT CORPORATION.IMG
Use your favorite software (Roxio, Nero…) to burn use the merged files now in C:\ORIGDISK\ into a “BOOTABLE CD”. The critical parameters are:

the CD name MUST be exactly what the original cd’s name was. Here are some examples:
Windows XP Professional Open License = X1APVOL_EN
Windows XP Professional Retail = WXPCCP_EN
Windows XP Home Retail = WXHCCP_EN
Windows XP Professional OEM = WXPOEM_EN
Windows XP Home OEM = WXHOEM_EN
If you use a name that is different from that of the original disk, your new disk will not be bootable so it is worth checking.

Point the boot image path to your extracted bootloader (i.e. C:\MICROSOFT CORPORATION.IMG)

Select NO EMULATION (floppy emulation will result in a non-bootable disk)

Set the NUMBER OF LOADED SECTORS to 4

Set the FILE SYSTEM to JOLIET

Set the PHYSICAL FORMAT to MODE 1

I think Nero is the easiest tool to perform this task with but you can do this with Roxio 5 and 9 aswell. Note that it is quite difficult to accomplish with Roxio 7 and 7.5. Each CD burning package will be different but make this easier, I have a few screen shots of the relevant setting below:

Nero
Roxio EZ CD 5
Roxio EZ CD 6