Avoiding installing SP2 over SP1?

Blindmelonball,

You will not receive a prompt to install SP1 during the reinstallation of XP since it is slipstreamed into the copy of XP you have. While it's true that some of the contents of SP2 duplicate SP1, the only way to avoid installing SP2 after your installation is complete would be to slipstream SP2 into your existing copy of XPSP1.

Whilst SP2 includes SP1, when you install SP2 it will sense what you already have and only install what is needed additionally, so the install from the SP2 CD will be somewhat shorter if you have already got SP1. It really makes very little difference either way.

The advantage of using a SP2 slipstreamed CD to install XP SP2 in one go is that it reduces the space taken up by the backup files: you will have just the one I386 folder instead of the SP1 one (at C:\I386) and the SP2 one (at C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386). Also you won't have folders such as the SP2 uninstall folder C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ (that, optionally, can be deleted if you won't want to uninstall SP2).

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@JRosenfeld wrote:

Whilst SP2 includes SP1, when you install SP2 it will sense what you already have and only install what is needed additionally, so the install from the SP2 CD will be somewhat shorter if you have already got SP1. It really makes very little difference either way.

The advantage of using a SP2 slipstreamed CD to install XP SP2 in one go is that it reduces the space taken up by the backup files: you will have just the one I386 folder instead of the SP1 one (at C:\I386) and the SP2 one (at C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386). Also you won't have folders such as the SP2 uninstall folder C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ (that, optionally, can be deleted if you won't want to uninstall SP2).

Another advantage is that sometimes the update doesn't go well, as with my 8300, yet a clean install of SP2 goes smooth.