Now you can generate your own bug to crash Windows Xp

[Guest]

News item- Flash!!!

The Window Xp HomeEdition operating system now comes with
its own bug generator. Just follow these simple
directions.
1. Go into My-Computer and right click on the A: disket
drive.
2. Select Format.
2. Put a diskett drive in the A: drive.
3. Select Create MS-Dos diskett.
4. After the disket is created, reboot your computer
with the Dos diskett and type in a simple Dos
command, like "VER".
5. Remove your diskett and reboot your system.
6. And O-LA! You cant use your system anymore, HA HA!

Or here's an alternate solution.
1. Using the BACKUP UTILITY program, create a backup of
the System State. Then restore your system with
this backup and reboot.
2. And O-LA!

Oh by the way. You also wont be able to recover your
system with any MS tools unless you completely rebuild it
from scratch.

 

[Jim]

Do I detect a bit of cynicism?

Seriously, XP doesn't have a "DOS" mode, so I wouldn't
expect it to make bootable diskettes that actually
contained a "real" self-contained operating system. Though
I'm no expert...

If you really want to create a "safe" backup that will
restore your system to it's fully functional state then I
would recommend NOT using ANY backup utility that runs
under Windows (any version, including XP). There are too
many files which are in use and won't get backed up. As
long as any Windows programs (including the operating
system itself) are running then the system is in a
constantly changing dynamic state, and any backup you make
won't be 100% reliable.

The safest bet is to use a "DOS" mode backup program to
make a "snapshot" copy of your entire drive. I've had very
good luck with DriveImage from PowerQuest Inc. You can use
an older Windows OS to make a bootable diskette for it
(like Win98). It also comes with Caldera DOS, which works
fine for this purpose. It can backup to CDR's, network
drives, or an alternate drive or partition in your system.
It can even subdivide your backup into multiple files for
later transfer to portable media. This is handy for
running backups while you sleep, and then burning the
backup files to CDR's the next day.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't try to access NTFS volumes from the
DOS prompt while starting up DriveImage, or Norton Ghost,
or any other "DOS" mode backup program. While the backup
program will understand your NTFS volumes (assuming the
backup program is less than a couple years old) the DOS
file system won't! If you're using FAT16, FAT32, or FAT32X
volumes then you can access them from the DOS prompt, but
you'll only see the shortened filenames.

SAFETY TIP: DON'T make a backup to an alternate partition
of the same drive without subsequently copying the backup
image files somewhere else. Some company's (Compaq?) like
to ship customized versions of DriveImage that use a
partition on the boot drive to store the backup images. If
the drive crashes then you lose everything - including the
backups!

Jim