Get Windows XP SP2 nowdays

[Cortez]

We discussed a lot of time that the perfect OS for SD capturing is Windows XP SP2. My capture PC building is almost complete (only drives missing and have to figure out the best CPU - RAM combination). How can i get the OS these days "officially"? The PC will be offline.

[Sergei316]

You can find many Windows XP Pro SP2 full install CD's on eBay.

I have several copies. Not sure if the forum allows us to post an XP Pro SP2 ISO for download.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MICROSOFT-W...gAAOSwkYleIWA1

[Cortez]

I found one disc at home but i am sure it's not original. It may cause some drawbacks? I would like to order from Europe because from the United States it can add some extra costs like VAT, customs, etc. I still don't know how complicated is the shipping from the US. I ordered a TBC-1000 from lordsmurf and still waiting for the shipping to be safe and ideal.

One of the seller description contains:

this disc will work but as XP does not recognise SATA drives you will need to slip some drivers into it.

We already talked about this here that some workaround needs to SP2 work with SATA drives. How complicated is it? Is it possible that i cannot make it, mess up the drive or cannot recover it from a false state? Instead i should stick to an IDE drive? I found also IDE drives in perfect condition as seen on the screenshots. How big should it be? The primary drive will get the OS and some softwares for the capturing. As i know the maximum size that XP can handle is 2 TB. The secondary drive will be SATA 2 TB. The OS will recognise it or i have to do workaround also. If the primary drive will be 500 GB for example then i can use only 1,5 TB from the secondary drive or this is false?

[BW37]

Cortez,

You do not want to capture to the same physical drive that the OS and capture software is installed on. So you need to purchase a second drive anyway to have a separate OS/boot drive in your PC in addition to the 2TB data/video capture drive. So the choice is whether to buy an IDE or a SATA drive for the OS. You will only need about 25GB of space for the OS and capture software so most drives you'll find (120GB, 160GB, 200GB) will be plenty large. The useful size of the 2TB capture drive will be unaffected. It will all be available for capture.

Most of your options were discussed in the previous thread:

1. Use an IDE drive for the OS install. This is the easiest route and will also leave the second SATA port available for a second capture drive, for instance, add an eSATA connection for an external capture drive.

2. Use a SATA drive for the OS (in addition to your 2TB drive) and:

a. Find a floppy drive to install temporarily so you can install the SATA drivers from that floppy when the XP installer asks for them.
OR
b. Prepare a slipstreamed version of WinXP to include the SATA drivers (and more if desired) so the installer has everything it needs for the installation. This is the "pro" way to do it, and what you would do if you want to build multiple systems, etc. But it requires you to get the right software and learn how to do slipstreaming which is beyond the scope here (I think).

BW

[Cortez]

Yes. There will be separated drives for the OS and the captured footages. We talked about that earlier. I was misunderstandable, sorry. I ordered an IDE drive already just to make my work easier. This is a used one of course and more than 10 years old but i choosed this 500 GB drive not because the size, because of the condition (still 100% according to the HD Sentinel screenshot). The SATA drive will be a new 2 TB one. If the IDE drive will die later i will try to get another one or try to accomplish the hard way with slipstream and floppy drive. Maybe there are some tutorials on the internet.

I also ordered an XP installer with COA. The seller said that the COA was never used but i have to install the SP3 after the install for the validation. Does it make sense? Maybe the COA is not for this exact copy or something? We will see.