Guest_imported
New member
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
How do i create system restore disks in XP?
Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations derfloh on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
How do i create system restore disks in XP?
- Thread starter Guest_imported
- Start date
- Status
dilettante
MIS
The XP "Help and Support Center" has a procedure to create a basic "MS-DOS bootable floppy."
You basically put the disk in a drive, go to My Computer and right-click the floppy drive and select Format, then on the format dialog select "Create an MS-DOS startup disk."
This is a pretty bare disk, but it will boot into MS-DOS.
I assume you might want this to try to repair a damaged WinXP installation? If so, be aware that this is normally done by booting your computer from the WinXP Setup CD, not from a floppy.
If your machine is too old to boot from the CD you will probably need to add CD-ROM support files (and a CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to load 'em up) to that bootable floppy.
You basically put the disk in a drive, go to My Computer and right-click the floppy drive and select Format, then on the format dialog select "Create an MS-DOS startup disk."
This is a pretty bare disk, but it will boot into MS-DOS.
I assume you might want this to try to repair a damaged WinXP installation? If so, be aware that this is normally done by booting your computer from the WinXP Setup CD, not from a floppy.
If your machine is too old to boot from the CD you will probably need to add CD-ROM support files (and a CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT to load 'em up) to that bootable floppy.
MowermanED
Technical User
Just go to your local software store and buy Norton Ghost 7 along with a package of blank disks and you'll be in business in no time.
dilettante
MIS
Maybe you were asking about this?
A Backup (Ntbackup.exe) option to use when boot and system files become corrupt, preventing your system from starting in normal or safe modes, or using Recovery Console. This option is more desirable than formatting disks and reinstalling Windows because ASR restores system settings and critical files on the system and boot partitions.
The user interface to ASR backup is the ASR wizard in Backup, which steps you through the process of creating an ASR backup set and an ASR floppy. Windows XP Professional Setup provides the user interface to ASR restore.
Because the ASR process formats disks, consider this a last resort when using Last Known Good Configuration, Device Driver Roll Back, System Restore, or Recovery Console does not solve the problem. ASR is available in safe or normal mode.
Of course I tried starting this thing and telling it to create floppies, and it estimated about two days for the process to complete!
This utility can only use tape drives, floppies, Zip, or SuperDisk drives, not CD-R or CD-RW devices.
It DOES create a restore boot floppy as part of the process though.
A Backup (Ntbackup.exe) option to use when boot and system files become corrupt, preventing your system from starting in normal or safe modes, or using Recovery Console. This option is more desirable than formatting disks and reinstalling Windows because ASR restores system settings and critical files on the system and boot partitions.
The user interface to ASR backup is the ASR wizard in Backup, which steps you through the process of creating an ASR backup set and an ASR floppy. Windows XP Professional Setup provides the user interface to ASR restore.
Because the ASR process formats disks, consider this a last resort when using Last Known Good Configuration, Device Driver Roll Back, System Restore, or Recovery Console does not solve the problem. ASR is available in safe or normal mode.
Of course I tried starting this thing and telling it to create floppies, and it estimated about two days for the process to complete!
This utility can only use tape drives, floppies, Zip, or SuperDisk drives, not CD-R or CD-RW devices.
It DOES create a restore boot floppy as part of the process though.
dilettante
MIS
Hmm. I have found several references that suggest Backup CAN use a CD-R/RW. Perhaps it is worth a try?
Masterpjz9
Technical User
How would you use a cd-rw for backup?
dilettante
MIS
This article says:
"You can back up your data to a file on a storage device. A storage device can be a hard disk, a Zip disk, or any type of removable or nonremovable media to which you can save a file. This option is always available."
So I assume you might be able to use Adaptec (Roxio)DirectCD, assuming you have a handful of formatted CD-Rs or CD-RWs ready. Could require a lot of CDs though. Seems like DirectCD only leaves room for about 500MB of data on each disk - but I'm a little hazy on this.
Also, unless you take the resulting "written" DirectCD disks and "close them out" or "finalize" them you may not be able to use them when you want to restore your system from them.
Gee, maybe a good thing to test on a rainy day - you need a "disposable" system to play with that has a CD writer, WinXP, a bunch of CDs, the Roxio software, and a lot of time. ;-)
- Status
