I am sure this article will be very useful for computer technicians. Many years back, my first job was a computer technician and I am required to reinstall Windows very often. Whenever there’s a problem I can’t solve, the only solution is to format and reinstall Windows. The most annoying problem that I encounter was finding the correct driver for network adapter, sound card, display card, and etc after installing Windows. Some people don’t keep their drivers disc and it can be tough looking for the correct drivers especially if the hardware is some OEM parts from some unknown manufacturer.

When we couldn’t look for the correct drivers, we have to waste more time in downloading and trying other drivers which can result in blue screens, lockups and auto reboots. How nice if there was a CD or DVD that contains ALL latest drivers for main hardwares such as LAN, sound, chipset, CPU, graphics, storage and Wireless LAN?

Look no further because I will show you how to easily create a CD that contains all current LAN, sound, chipset, CPU, graphics, storage and Wireless LAN drivers.

1. Copy everything from your Windows XP CD to a new folder, for example C:\XPSOURCE

Make CD with all drivers

2. Download DriverPacks Base and place the self-extracting file to a new folder, for example, C:\DriverPacks. Run the DriverPacks Base file and allow it to extract it’s contents to the folder you picked.

Download all drivers to CD

3. Go to DriverPacks page and download the pack you want. It has driverpacks for Chipset, CPU, Graphics, LAN, MassStorage, Sound and WLAN. Copy the packs to C:\DriverPacks\DriverPacks. You do not need to unzip them. Just download and copy the .7z file to C:\DriverPacks\DriverPacks

4. Now run DPs_BASE.exe from C:\DriverPacks. Select your language and click the Next button. Click Next again when you’re at the Settings page.

5. When you’re at the page asking you to select location of platform, make sure “disc” is selected, and click Browse button. Browse to C:\XPSOURCE. It will identify the operating system type. Click Next.

Latest drivers in CD

6. Select the packs that you want to slipstream and click Next.

7. Choose “method 1” and click Next.

XP CD with latest drivers

8. Now click the Slipstream button.

9. Go to C:\XPSOURCE folder and you’ll notice a new folder “$OEM$” being created. Burn the “D” folder from “Source Folder \$OEM$\$1\” to a CD.

Congratulations! You now have a CD that contains all latest drivers for Windows XP! If you’re burning the drivers to a DVD, you don’t need to go through all the steps above. Just download the driverpacks and extract. Burn the \D folder to a DVD. The reason why we need to go through such long process for CD is because all uncompressed driverpacks takes up 1.3GB of space but a CD is only 700MB. So we need to cab compress the DriverPacks to fit in a CD.

This article might be a little outdated as there are newer version of DriverPacks. Do visit DriverPacks official website below for updated information.

[ Visit DriverPacks ]

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