OS reinstallation without XP C.D.

I tried helping a buddy of mine with the removal of trojan horses on his machine. After numerous attempts ( and I do mean numerous attempts ) I could not get rid of all the little buggers. I decided that maybe a backup of important files and a reinstallation should do the trick but after waiting for my buddy to bring me the XP disk, now he cant find it.
Im not sure if his OS is an authentic version of XP but i definetly dont want to run the microsofts validation tool and come to find out that its not and have to deal with that bullshiznit.
Is there a way of reinstalling XP without the instalation disk?
Thanks for any replies,
Godless3434 :zzz

 

First and most important, does he have the product key sticker on the side or rear (or on the bottom if a laptop) of the case? Having the product key is almost more important than the CD. The validation tool is actually the least of your problems. If the product key isn't legit, it won't activate, and he'll be locked out of Windows after 30 days. If you don't have the sticker, you can always run something like ProduKey, or KeyFinder, to extract the product key. You can install with it, but it may not activate.... Anyway, to your original question... if you have the i386 folder on the hard drive, you can reload by burning it's contents to a CD, and using it as an install disc. You have to format the HD in FAT32, boot with a Win98 floppy (or make the CD bootable into DOS), then run the setup from the CD... it'll be a really slow install, but I've done it, and it works, but the install takes about 3 hours. You can also create a set of 6 WinXP boot floppies (the creation software is a free download from Microsoft), but you still need the i386 folder (at the very least) on a CD....
ProduKey: http://www.majorgeeks.com/ProduKey_d4953.html
KeyFinder: link seems to be dead?
Link to boot floppies: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994/en-us

 

I already extracted the product key and have it written down, Is there anything important I should know about I386 installation from disk ? Also is the six floppy disk installation the same as burning the folder to cd ? Also what is a good way to verify that I do not have any trojans in the I386 folder before I burn it.
Also what is the diffrence, in geek terms, not lamens terms, between creating an iso image and backing up a hard drive by copying it ? I know that an iso is a mirrored image of a file but what good would that do to me if it doesnt have the same properties of a copied file. I might be wrong about this whole thing but to my knowledge an iso is just a directory in a sense of where to put back the files exactly.
Many more questions to come................ so tune in next time...........
this is mr military intellegence man signing off to those in la-la land.
peace be with you all,
Godless3434 :zzz

 

My cousin said something about the XP installation going faster on FAT32 if you copy some file called smrtdrv.exe to your hard disk. I've seen it too, and it works. I'm pretty sure it's called smrtdrv because he called it smart drive. This file is usually found on windows 98 or something like that.

 

Dont even need to copy it. Just run it, as it stays in ram till reboot, and is only useful for the first phase of copying files anyway.

 

I dont understand, " run it as it stays in ram till reboot ", and whats only good for first phase in copying files ? Maybe I'm not fully functional yet but I just woke up. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !

 

Referring to smartdrive.