XP Pro SP2 boot disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter ~~~ .NET Ed ~~~
  • Start date Start date
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~~~ .NET Ed ~~~

Hi,
Is there a way to create a reliable boot disk for XP Professional SP2?
just a DOS disk that is able to
boot my XP in case my MBR gets fried.... Yes I have the XP setup CD but that
is not the idea, and besides I
do not trust the so called "recovery mode" of the XP setup disk, last time I
used it it only made the situation WORSE.

I just need a basic one disk that is able to boot it. I formatted a floppy
in XP and selected "Make it bootable". Then afterwards I placed there the
ntldr, ntdetect.com and my boot.ini (my /Windows is in D: ). I decided to
give it a try and yes, it booted me into DOS only with a legend "Windows
Millenium" (????). But it did not boot my XP at all, it simply left me with
the A: prompt from which I could access my C: (FAT32) drive where the
original ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini are but absolutely no access to D:
(NTFS) and of course no windows. I understand that D: would not be
accessible but I am not happy at all that I does not even bring up the
logon/welcome screen even though it has all three files!!!

Any suggestions?
 
~~~ .NET Ed ~~~ said:
Is there a way to create a reliable boot disk for XP Professional
SP2? just a DOS disk that is able to
boot my XP in case my MBR gets fried.... Yes I have the XP setup CD
but that is not the idea, and besides I
do not trust the so called "recovery mode" of the XP setup disk, last
time I used it it only made the situation WORSE.

I just need a basic one disk that is able to boot it. I formatted a
floppy in XP and selected "Make it bootable". Then afterwards I
placed there the ntldr, ntdetect.com and my boot.ini (my /Windows is
in D: ). I decided to give it a try and yes, it booted me into DOS
only with a legend "Windows Millenium" (????). But it did not boot my
XP at all, it simply left me with the A: prompt from which I could
access my C: (FAT32) drive where the original ntldr, ntdetect and
boot.ini are but absolutely no access to D: (NTFS) and of course no
windows. I understand that D: would not be accessible but I am not
happy at all that I does not even bring up the logon/welcome screen
even though it has all three files!!!
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Then research and make yourself a bootable Windows PE (Bart PE actually) CD.

Here's a good example of what can be done:
http://www.ubcd4win.com/
 
Will try with that Bart PE, the UBCD4win seems utterly complicated, I need a
solution that works asap.
 
~~~ .NET Ed ~~~ said:
Will try with that Bart PE, the UBCD4win seems utterly complicated, I
need a solution that works asap.
Click to expand...

Hmm..
It took all of 45 minutes to make the UBCD for Windows - since everything
except Windows XP itself was there..

- AutoStreamer to integrate SP2.
- The simple instructions here:
http://ubcd4win.com/howto.htm

BartPE is no simpler - actually - UBCD4Win is just one way of making a
BartPE CD.
 
Well I just went through the trouble of installing Demon-tools to mount ISO
images, of installing and using AutoStreamer to stream the SP2 files
together with the files from my XP Pro disk and then running Bart PE.

It is kind of slow at booting. It failed to load the network drivers. It
then presented me with Bart's idea of a desktop and that was it, nothing
useful to do so far. I was expecting it would allow me to boot into the
WinXP welcome screen so that I could logon to windows if my C drive's MBR
went bust but no.... this definitely doesn't do what I needed.

Any other ideas? whatever happened to good ole' useful boot disks/cd ? is
booting to one own's system really too much to ask these days? :-(

I will keep AutoStreamar and Demon Tools on my system, but BartPE will
simply stay on that CD I created in hopes I never have to rely on anything
like that.
 
~~~ .NET Ed ~~~ said:
Hi,
Is there a way to create a reliable boot disk for XP Professional SP2?
just a DOS disk that is able to
boot my XP in case my MBR gets fried....
Click to expand...

Nope. None. No version of Windows has been accessible via a
bootable diskette since Windows 3.x

You can use a 6 diskette bootable set (download from Microsoft) to
boot to the Windows XP Recovery Console which gives you a limited set
of command line functions but no GUI. But that is as close as you
are going to get from the diskette route.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
 
If you could get into your computer with a simple boot disk, anybody could.
It's all about security. Windows XP is built upon Windows NT. Windows NT has
always been an industrial strength operating system, designed with security
in mine from the very beginning.

You could always go back to Windows 98. (-:

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

~~~ .NET Ed ~~~ said:
Well I just went through the trouble of installing Demon-tools to mount
ISO images, of installing and using AutoStreamer to stream the SP2 files
together with the files from my XP Pro disk and then running Bart PE.

It is kind of slow at booting. It failed to load the network drivers. It
then presented me with Bart's idea of a desktop and that was it, nothing
useful to do so far. I was expecting it would allow me to boot into the
WinXP welcome screen so that I could logon to windows if my C drive's MBR
went bust but no.... this definitely doesn't do what I needed.

Any other ideas? whatever happened to good ole' useful boot disks/cd ? is
booting to one own's system really too much to ask these days? :-(

I will keep AutoStreamar and Demon Tools on my system, but BartPE will
simply stay on that CD I created in hopes I never have to rely on anything
like that.
Click to expand...
 
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