Making an Emergency Repair Disk

If your system is corrupted or crashes and won’t boot, here is help.  Prepare for disaster ahead of time.

Windows 98 and 95 Emergency Repair Disk

A lot of steps needed.

Please see: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/win98/tips/erd.mspx

Windows 2000

To create an ERD:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup.

2. On the Tools menu, click Create an Emergency Repair Disk.

You can use the ERD for the following repair functions:

• inspect and repair the startup environment.
• Verify the Windows 2000 system files and replace missing or damaged files
• Inspect and repair the boot sector.

NOTE: When you attempt to repair Windows 2000, it asks if you have an ERD diskette, if you do not have the diskette, press L and the computer attempts to locate your Windows 2000 installation to perform repairs. This process looks for the Boot.ini file on your computer partition and reads the ARC paths to your operating system(s). The computer then attempts to load the following hive for each ARC path:

%systemroot%\System32\Config\Software

This attempt finds which installation versions matches the installation CDROM used to do the repair.

If the Boot.ini file cannot be read, or the software hive is corrupt, the repair is not able to proceed. At this time, you must have a ERD diskette containing a valid Setup.log file for that computer before repairs are possible.

The registry hives saved during setup are in the following folder:

%systemroot%\repair

The registry hives are used during a FAST repair only, otherwise you need to use Recovery Console to manually copy a more recent registry hive saved by NTbackup in the following folder:

%systemroot%\repair\regback

Windows XP:  Now uses Automated System Recovery

The Automated System Recovery (ASR) tool, an advanced option of the Backup Tool (NTBackup.exe), is new in Windows XP Professional. The ASR feature replaces the Emergency Repair Disk found in Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0. Use ASR to restore your system only if other disaster recovery tools are unavailable.

ASR allows you to restore the operating system to a previous state so that you can start Windows XP Professional when other recovery methods do not work. For example, disk damage might prevent you from starting Windows XP Professional in normal or safe mode, or prevent using Recovery Console and Last Known Good Configuration. ASR gives you another way to start your system.

ASR consists of two parts that automate the process of saving and restoring system state information: ASR backup and ASR restore.

ASR Backup

The ASR wizard guides you through the process of saving ASR backups to removable media. When using the wizard to create an ASR backup, you need to decide where to store the ASR backup data and have a blank floppy disk available.  

To locate the ASR wizard:

• In All Programs, point to Accessories, System Tools, and then click Backup.
• Click Advanced Mode, and then click Automated System Recovery Wizard.
• On the floppy disk, the wizard saves only hard-disk configuration information (not user data), such as disk signatures, the partition table, and volume data. If you run the ASR restore operation later, ASR Restore configures disks by using the saved data on the ASR floppy disk. The ASR backup operation scans your system and lists files to save for an ASR Restore.

ASR Restore

The ASR restore text-mode process relies on Windows XP Professional Setup along with the information stored on an ASR floppy disk. Before you begin, gather the following items:

• The most recent ASR floppy disk.
• The Windows XP Professional operating system CD.
• The most recent ASR backup media set, typically removable media such as data tape cartridges.

To restore your system by using ASR:

• Insert the Windows XP Professional operating system CD, and then restart your computer.
• At the Press any key to boot CD prompt, press any key.
• At the ASR prompt, press F2.
• At the prompt, insert an ASR floppy disk.
• At the prompt, insert ASR backup media (typically one or more pieces of removable media such as data tape cartridges).
• At the prompt, provide a destination folder, such as C:\Windows or C:\Winnt.
• ASR checks the backup media. To avoid application configuration issues, it is recommended that you give the destination folder the same directory name that you used when you created the ASR backup.

Restoring from network shares is not an ASR option. Therefore, you must use locally attached devices such as the following devices attached to ATA or SCSI adapters:

• Tape backup drives
• Removable disks, including CDs
• Other hard disks

ASR Considerations

ASR is not a replacement for regular backups in which files stored on one or more volumes are saved to backup media. Because ASR saves only the files necessary to restore system state, data loss might occur. Therefore, always consider other recovery options before using ASR.

For more information about Recovery Console, see "Tools for Troubleshooting," in this book.

Before using ASR, consider the following points:

• ASR formats the system drive partition as part of the restore process. When you have dedicated space for user data files on the system partition (system drive), personal data or application files are not restored, and data loss is possible.
• ASR restores only operating system files that it determines need repair. However, ASR might initialize operating system volumes that also contain users' personal files. Therefore, there is a risk to user files stored on these volumes.
• ASR is different from the System Restore feature. ASR is a recovery tool that backs up all files on the system partition and is used to bring a system back online if startup fails. System Restore saves only incremental changes, or shadow copies, and lets you start Windows XP Professional in normal or safe mode. Always try System Restore before resorting to ASR.
• ASR supports FAT16 volumes up to 2.1 GB only. ASR does not support 4 GB FAT16 partitions that use a cluster size of 64 kilobytes (KB). If your system contains 4-GB FAT16 partitions, convert them from FAT16 to NTFS before using ASR. For more information about volumes and clusters, see "File Systems" in this book.

For more information about Automated System Recovery,

see: Windows XP Professional Help and Support Center