Slipstreaming Windows 2000

Windows 2000 is a nice operating system developed and released by the Microsoft Corporation.
As other Microsoft releases this operating system has service packs to be applied. At the time of
writing this document the fourth Service Pack has been released a couple of weeks.
I will try to explain to you how to intergrate the service packs into an installation/bootable
cd.

Every once in a while you need or want to reinstall your operating system to start clean again.
Reinstalling is a proces where not much fun is to be found. That is why we want to do it with the
least amount of administrative efforts.

To intergrate the service pack into the installation you will need the following:

Free hard disk space (take a gig for this).
The original installation CD.
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 Network Install (about 100 MB).
Third party software called isobuster.
Burning software.
Note that I will be using NERO version 5.0.1.2 and some options may be somewhat different in
different versions/products.

The first thing you will need to do is copy the contents of the CD to a folder on your harddisk.
For this example I will use k:\W2K\
Whenever you copy files from a cd to the harddrive they will all have the read-only flag set.
This needs to be removed. (does it really :: btw ?)
Open a command prompt and change to k:\W2K\. Perform the following command:
'attrib -r /s *.*'
from this directory to remove the read-only flag on all files.

Next I have the service pack in the following directory: k:\SP4\.
Change into this directory and use W2KSP2.exe -x. This is the only switch the SP understands.

From Microsoft:
Extract W2ksp2.exe without starting Update.exe
You are prompted to provide the directory path to which you want to extract W2ksp2.exe.
I chose to extract the files into the directory k:\SP4\EXTRACT
Wait a while untill you are prompted by a box telling you the extraction was successfull.

Now change into the specified directory and then to the i386\update folder.
In this folder you will find the executable update.exe.
This file can take several parameters but we will only use the -s one. For a full overview of the
options choose 'update /?'
You will have to specify where the installation files are at so for this example the full command
would look like:
update -s:k:\W2K
Wait untill you see the message that the intergration has completed succesfull.
If you get an error message here my best bet would be that your SP is corrupt.
Redownload. If you are sure the SP is correct and you still get error messages use some googleism.

Where half way there. If you burn the working directory to a cd you will have a installation cd
with SP4 intergrated. We want to have a bootable installation cd though so we will need to do
some more work.

Install isobuster if you have not done it yet and launch the program with the original cd in the
tray.
Under 'Bootable CD' you will find a file called 'Microsoft Corporation.img'. Extract this file to
the working directory (d:\W2K\).

Now thew tricky part.
Creating the bootrom.

I will use NERO Burning software 5.0.1.2 but you can do it with others.
If the 'create cd' wizzard pops up close that.
Select 'Create CD (boot).
You will get popped into the second tab called 'boot'.
Here select the 'Microsoft Corporation.img' image file.
Set the emulation type to 'No Emulation'.
Make sure the 'Load segment of sectors' is set to '07C0' (hex).
Set the 'Number of loaded sectors' to '4' (default is 1).

In the next tab (ISO for some versions File Options in others) make sure that the following are

set:
ISO Level 1(Max of 11=8+3 chars)
Format = Mode 1
Character set is ISO 9660
Joliet check box is selected.
The ISO relaxation checkboxes are checked.(If there are only two checkboxes here you probably
have an older version of NERO (like my version). In this case you will have to edit a registry
entry. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ahead\Nero - Burning Rom\General and set the
'AddISOFileVersion' to 0 (rebooting required)

On the next tab set the following:
ISO9660
Volume Label: W2KVOL_EN
System Identifier: W2KVOL_EN
Volume Set: W2KVOL_EN
Publisher: MICROSOFT_CORPORATION
Data Preparer: MICROSOFT_CORPORATION
Application: W2KVOL_EN
Also use the ISO9660 text for Joliet

Set the date to 'use date from original file' (this is the default setting).

We are almost there.
Press the NEW button to get into the file selection screen.
Here check all the files you copied to the harddrive.
(In this example this would be all the files in the k:\W2K folder , you can exclude the
'Microsoft Corporation.img' file).

Press write and wait for your boot cd to be created.

The next step to perform is to create a setup disk that will perform an unattended installation
for us (I know this eliminates the need to boot from the CD) but that would be another tutorial,
perhaps next time.

Note that there is also space on the CD. This could be usefull for for example the dotnet
framework WMP 9 and IE 6.0 or other software.

References:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=271791
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/sp1_slipstream.asp
http://www.duspinnst.com/bootcd.htm
http://www.ahead.com/
http://www.isobuster.com/

IF you have an corrections or errors to report please feel free to post them as a reply.

Thanks alot
noODle

sidenote:
A (kind off)html version (with screenshots) can be found at:
http://62.131.200.99/eastwood/sp/sp4boot.htm (thanks to the_JinX)