[patsceltssox]

My very old laptop is on the frtiz, and the reinstall of Windows XP Home is asking for the SP1 CD. I tried SP1a, and it's not working. There must be differences between SP1 and SP1a.

Also tried SP2.

Does anyone know where I can find the true SP1a version? I'll then extract it to a CD and be off and running again... and I'll eventually shop for a new laptop!

Thanks,
Bob

[temeteus82]

Hi there and welcome to DriverHeaven!

Why it is asking for the CD? Since if you don't have one already there isn't much change for you to get or make one. Normally if you do full reinstallation of windows it would not do such thing. If you can try to install the SP3 on it.

[patsceltssox]

The only options in Windows are Repair a current installation, or install a new installation in a diferente directory.

I booted from the Windows CD, did a Repair, and then it rebooted. I took the CD out of the drive, and setup continues. It's asking for the CD prior to the "Installing Windows" step. Sp1a didn't work, I doubt SP3 will work.

My hope is someone has the file on their hard drive, and is willing to post it somewhere. Once that'd done, I will certainly bring it up to sp3.

I'm thinking of buying a copy of XP Pro, but I also don't want to spend any money on this very old laptop. Not even sure an XP Pro would install.

[temeteus82]

Originally Posted by patsceltssox

The only options in Windows are Repair a current installation, or install a new installation in a diferente directory.

I booted from the Windows CD, did a Repair, and then it rebooted. I took the CD out of the drive, and setup continues. It's asking for the CD prior to the "Installing Windows" step. Sp1a didn't work, I doubt SP3 will work.

My hope is someone has the file on their hard drive, and is willing to post it somewhere. Once that'd done, I will certainly bring it up to sp3.

I'm thinking of buying a copy of XP Pro, but I also don't want to spend any money on this very old laptop. Not even sure an XP Pro would install.

Don't buy new copy of windows if you have already have one. The issues that you have are there because you did the repair install it has the nag to mess the system up really well. And the CD that the setup prompts is the CD that you used to repair the windows installation. The best thing you can do in my opinion is to backup all important information from your hard drive to USB pen drive or some other portable media. And then do full install of XP Home, format the hard drive during the install.

[patsceltssox]

I really appreciate your replying. At this point, because I'm in the middle of reinstalling, I have no way to get to the C drive. Even safe mode with command is unavailable during setup.