Win XP Service Pack Questions?

[jsmileb]

I have a Dell running 2005 XP Media Center Edition in a RAID 1 (mirroring) array. The array seems to be breaking down after 4 years and verifies every couple of boots. I want to trash the RAID array, put a new single drive in the machine, and reinstall the same OS, to see if I can coax another year or two out of the box. My question relates to updating the old OS.

Is the OS still supported? I still seem to be able to update the OS.

I looked for Service Pack 1 online, and could not find it. Service Pack 3 is the only one I can find for download. Is SP3 an accumulation including SP1 and SP2, or is there a pre-requisite that 1 and 2 be present to add 3?

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

 

[wefixpcsny]

Right click on my computer and left click on properties and you should be able to determine the Win XP media center system build and updates, Win XP media center edition is biult on the Win XP Professional version with the media center thrown in for good looks... If you must reinstall you operating system on a clean install you could order from DELL the CD / DVD version of Win XP Media Center version 2005 SP2B and use the OEM license sticker on the side of you box. Dell made several systems that came with Win XP media the first version was Win xp media center 2005 then the rollup RC sp1 and Rollup RC sp2. Note: You will need to reconfigure the way the Bios reads "Sees" the drives to be able to format and install to a new Hard drive. If you want to purchase an OEM builder version it can be obtained still from most software sellers for about $ 120.00 dollars shipped.

 

[mailpup]

According to Microsoft, you should have SP1a or SP2 installed before you apply SP3. See here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsxp/sp3/default.mspx

Installing SP2 will include SP1 and you can download SP2 here: http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/xpsp2.html

By the way, what happens when you go to Windows Update? Does it offer SP2 on your original Windows installation?

 

[centurymeltdown]

I reccomend installing all the updates you can, check if it could be anything else before going around changing hardware..