A bootable USB drive running WinPE (version 3.0 or higher, derived from Windows 7 or later).

Because it doesn't map sectors directly to a hard drive, a single WIM image can be applied to different hardware configurations (provided drivers are managed correctly).

Example command: imagex /capture C: D:\XP_Image.wim "Windows XP Professional"

: Traditional XP installation takes 30–60 minutes. Restoring a WIM image can take less than 5 minutes.

(Or use dism.exe /Apply-Image /ImageFile:D:\windows_xp.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:W:\ ) Step 4: Rebuild the Boot Configuration (ntldr)