re: Windows XP start-up disk. HELP!!!!
Sunday, July 20, 2003 at 8:40 am
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Dan Sarandrea, MCSE
(4310 messages posted)
Barbara,
The six downloaded floppies are intended to start the computer so that setup can
run from the XP CDROM. MS has made those floppies available to accommodate people
whose systems cannot boot from the CDROM.
There is a side benefit to the floppies, as they include XP's Recovery Console, which
is an "emergency toolkit" for when the computer won't start in XP.
However, your computer purchase should have included an emergency copy of the Operating
System in one of these forms:
1. A genuine MS OEM XP CDROM.
1a. A genuine MS Retail XP CDROM (very unlikely, but not impossible).
2. A manufacturer-supplied recovery CDROM.
3. A manufacturer-supplied recovery partition, which would contain the same data
as the recovery partition.
Major computer sellers such as Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Sony, Toshiba, Dell, Gateway,
etc, use some form of recovery disk or partition.
The word "recovery" has been tossed about a lot, so let's clarify.
a. MS calls the emergency repair program it inlcudes on its CDs the Recovery Console.
It is a compact version of the XP operating system that can only be accessed by
typing commands. You use Recovery Console to type commands to fix broken files,
rewrite certain configuration files, or copy files from the MS XP CDROM to the hard
drive, for example
b. Manufacturer recovery disks and partitions contain the XP operating system, but
it can be stored in different formats. Some manufacturers supply a disk that is
a very slightly modified version of the MS XP CDROM, which has individual files on
it that are written to the hard drive in an specific order by the Setup program--when
it's done XP is installed. Other manufacturers use an imaging method---their disks
(or partition) contain a "picture" of the hard drive after the operating system is
installed, and their software simply "copies" the "picture" onto the hard drive.
The good part about this method is it is very fast---the bad part is that the process
erases the hard drive of any existing information before the new "picture" is copied
onto the drive, so anything you installed or any documents, pictures, music or emails
you had on the drive will be erased.
The point of all this is to say that the six floppies were never intended to install
the XP operating system.
To repair or replace your XP, you will need either CDROMs or a recovery partition.
If you purchased from a major seller, read he system documentation or call tech
support to find out how to use their recovery disk/partition to reinstall XP.
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