WinXp Home Edition BackUp without the CD

Hi I'd like to make a backup dvd of WinXP Home Edition. The original installation CD is toast/gone/dead. I researched the Microsft website and found that the "Backup" option is not available without the installation CD. I called the OEM computer company but I think they died too. I don't want to buy a new license to get an install CD. Any advice would be appreciated.

*note: just recovering from trojan vundo

 

If I understand correctly, you want to burn a CD/DVD that you can use to install Windows XP at a later date? Is that right? The only you can do this is if you have a folder on your PC called i386. This is basically all the install files, but it wouldn't be bootable. You'd need to use something like RVMs Integrator or something to create a bootable ISO image then burn it to a CD/DVD. If you don't have the i386 folder, there's nothing you can do about it. You can try to use something like Acronis or maybe even Nero BackUp to create a bootable 'restore' disc that would include your OS, files, programs, drivers, etc. But it wouldn't be just Windows, and you wouldn't be able to use it to install Windows on any other PCs due to the hardware drivers that would be integrated into the image. If you have a mass-market PC (like HP or Compaq or Dell etc) you may have a recovery partition on your hard drive that will contain the i386 folder. But it's common practice to make these partitions basically impossible to browse, and therefore burning the folder to a CD may not be possible either.