# Reinstalling Windows XP **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 31, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reinstalling-windows-xp/548735 "2010-07-31T22:42:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reinstalling-windows-xp/548735/1 "2010-07-31T22:42:04Z")
I had to bite the bullet and reinstall XP today. Right now it’s reformatting the HD. My question: What advantages would Service Pack 3 give me over SP 2? Should I just stick to SP 2? After setting up all my programs and updates, I would like to save it on a partition and enable it to do a complete reinstall from that partition (I’d prefer not to use an ISO and recovery disk.) Where can I get instructions for that? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reinstalling-windows-xp/548735/2 "2010-07-31T23:36:24Z")
SP3 has a bunch of securiy enhancements over SP2. Tere is nothing better about SP2, and nothing worse about SP3. SP2 is also now an “unsupported configuraton” in msft-speak. Which is to say any bugs it has will stay there. ---
**Author:** ![Al\_Bundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@Al\_Bundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al_Bundy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reinstalling-windows-xp/548735/3 "2010-08-01T14:09:32Z")
I’m unclear why you have to reinstall XP that probably already had all the updates on it. Maybe it was a virus or something corrupt that you gave up on. I can only recommend that you have a cloned disk nearby or installed and keep that fairly up to date. When problems come along, just copy it back in about 10" and you are set to go. I continue to do that even though the recovery function in XP has taken care of everything so far. I also run CCleaner regularly and correct the registry when programs are removed or added.