Creating Emergency Repair, Automatic System Recovery, and Startup Disks
Every Windows computer should have either a Startup disk, an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) or an Automatic System Restore (ASR) disk. The Windows 9x Startup disk is the same for all computers using that version of the operating system. You can also use a Windows 98 or Windows ME Startup disk to start a Windows 2000 or Windows XP computer as long as the file system is compatible. You will also be able to view and work with files on the computer. However, you should use the utilities on a disk for only that specific version of Windows with which the system Startup disk was created. Windows 9x offer the option of creating a startup disk during the installation of the operating system but you can also create a startup disk at the Add/Remove Programs component of the Control Panel, and clicking the create Start Up Disk tab. The Windows 2000 Emergency Rescue Disk (ERD) and the Windows XP Automatic System Recovery (ASR) disk is different. These disks are specific to the computer on which they were created. The Windows 2000 Emergency Rescue Disk (ERD) contains three files: autoexec.nt, config.nt, and setup.log. These are copies of the files with the same name that are contained in the %SystemRoot%\Repair folder. The autoexec.nt and config.nt files are used to initialize the MS-DOS environment while the setup.log file is used by the Windows 2000 emergency repair process. The ERD should be updated when ever a change is made to the structure of the operating system or when new hardware is added to the computer.
In Windows 2000 a wizard can be used to create the ERD. It is located in Programs\Accessories\System Tools\Backup. The ERD should, however, not be used to repair Registry problems.
The Windows XP Automatic System Recovery (ASR) disk allows you to recover a Windows XP system that is unable to start because of a hardware malfunction, the loss of a storage device, or another system disaster. After installing Windows XP Professional you can prepare the ASR process by running the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard and creating an ASR Disk. You can use the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard to back up an entire partition. The ASR disk enables you to gain access to that backed up data. The data can be backed up to a tape drive or writable CD-ROM, or backed up to a file and then burned to a CD or tape. The floppy disk created at the end of the backup process contains the ASR state file, named Asr.sif, and other files needed to restore the system to its original state.