Making a Bootable Windows 2000 CD with Service Pack Integrated

Keywords: Windows 2000, Service Pack, Bootable

From time to time it is necessary to install a fresh copy of Windows and quite often is desirable to have the Service Packs integrated to the installation copy to avoid additional work, such as extra downloadings.... Here I explain how to create a bootable Windows 2000 CD with Service pack 3 (SP3) integrated (the jargon for this kind of integration is slipstream).

The instruction should work with every version of Windows 2000 except Datacenter server, which requires extra skills - it is not discussed here.

Note: we use Ahead Nero, which is known to be the most-widely used CD-burner.

1. Download Service Pack 3 (English, 124MB) from Microsoft; for other languages, check this link
2. Download the boot files
3. Create a new folder and copy the entire content of Windows 2000 installation CD (or at least the i386 folder) into that folder. Let's denote the folder <cd-root>
4. Extract the SP3 file we downloaded earlier into a temporary folder by executing w2ksp3.exe -x. Denote this temp. directory <sp3-root>
5. Slipstream SP3 into the original i386 folder by executing <sp3-root>\i386\update\update.exe -S:<cd-root>. Note that we DON'T point to <cd-root>\i386. Note also that you can do this ONLY on Windows 2000/XP/.NET system
6. Extract the boot file we downloaded earlier into <cd-root>. If necessary, overwrite any existing files.
7. Now we are ready to burn. Start Nero and prepare to create CD-ROM (Boot) and do EXACTLY the same as the following pictures show. Note that to select the boot image file, we need to go to <cd-root>, where we extracted the boot files.









8. Burn away and you have the bootable Windows 2000 CD with SP3 slipstreamed