How To Save an Hour (Or More) On XP Installs

Information Week ^ | September 20, 2004 | Fred Langa

[LTCJ]

...please stifle it unless you have something valuable to add to the conversation....

OK, here is a valuable suggestion from a fellow home system admin - one I learned from personal experience in installing SP2:
Make sure you have easy alternate access to the Internet before upgrading. If something goes terribly wrong, there is no substitute for having ready access to the net's helpful resources.

I upgraded two systems. One seemed to go well (but had problems that showed up later) and the other resulted in a BSOD. As it was, it was a major pain in the rear but if I hadn't had the other system with a working Internet connection, it would have graduated to an absolute nightmare.

If you have a single point of access to the net, do yourself a favor and burn a bootable system CD that will give you a lifeline to the Internet. Something like Knoppix come to mind.