make a XP boot CD?

[rwbrick]

Is there any way to make/burn an emergency bootable CD (image) for XP for us guys who have long since lost the Installation CD? My computer has no diskette drive.

Rod B.

 

[jdemmi]

Bart PE should work for you,

http://nu2.nu/pebuilder/#start

-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros

 

[linney]

326246 - How to Replace Lost, Broken, or Missing Microsoft Software or Hardware

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326246&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Have a look at some of the imaging software on the market too.

Terabyte Unlimited

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/prodgrid.html

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm

Acronis True Image 10 Home

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

 

[rwbrick]

Thanks, all, for the help and tips.

Rod B.

 

[BadBigBen]

jdemmi - FYI, BartPE will not work in this instance!

If you don't have your windows XP setup/installation files on your system you must insert the original Microsoft Windows XP installation/setup CD at this point

so the only real alternative is what Linney posted...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[goombawaho]

I would beg, borrow or steal an XP CD and make yourself a Bart PE CD for future calamities. They are very helpful. Think farther into the future and be prepared beyond this issue.

 

[victorv]

hi,
someone wrote "bartpe will not work...",
he may be on right or not, it depends:

what do you mean "emergency bootable CD" ?
which may be operations you need to do in emergency?

access your documents on a not going/booting OS,
reinstall PC, remove virus,
migrate your os in a larger drive ...

bye
vic

 

[goombawaho]

^^^^ That was a nearly incomprehensible post Vicmeister. What was meant by "might not work" was that you NEED an XP CD to create a Bart PE CD, so if the OP doesn't have an XP CD - it's like the chicken and the egg.

 

[jdemmi]

You don't need a CD to create the CD -- if the installation files are n the PC (as their are with almost EVERY OEM install -- DELL, HP, IBM, Gateway, etc) you can use that to create the boot CD.

-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros

 

[goombawaho]

If the PC won't boot..............................

 

[jdemmi]

If the PC won't boot....create the Bart PE CD from the PC you're using to post on Tek Tips.

-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros

 

[goombawaho]

There's the rub my brother - not everyone can do that. Think about people using work PCs, people with only one PC. IT departments generally don't like you using their PCs as aids for repairing your home computer.

 

[jdemmi]

I didn't suggest that everyon can do that. And where is it stated that rwbrick is using a work PC to post here? And has no access to another (family, friend, or other) PC?

-- Jason
"It's Just Ones and Zeros

 

[626F62]

if your willing to beg borrow or steal... why dont you just.. beg for one, or borrow one or... (you can see were this is going) steal one

*i totaly dont seriously suggest stealing and im not even sure your alowed to borrow them either*

if your after a Windows XP CD that boots, i dont think you can from your windows. if your after the equivalant of the Diskett i beleive it can be done to pen drive (wich are cheaper than Floppys now anyway) how i dont know? if your just after a bootable CD...Bart PE is cool program. dont think you need XP CD to make one tho, dont you just down load image and burn to CD (can be done in local libary) failing that order Linux!

and Vic.... WHAT YOU ON ABOUT!?!

 

[BadBigBen]

Bart PE is cool program. dont think you need XP CD to make one tho

There you are wrong... due to liscencing issues BartPE cannot be downloaded as an image, you as the user must create one with a XP CD...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[rwbrick]

Thanks for the help. My understanding is that the Bart boot CD must be made on a clean system, not a system that is corrupted. That's because it will boot your operating system and takes OS install files off your computer (or install CD). This doesn't help my current situation but sounds good for the future.

A couple of questions that weren't clear in the documentation: If you make a Bart CD it will boot the installed system as of the time of the CD creation, but will not encompass anything added later. Is this correct? The doc implies that if you have the right plastic CD you can create another one and write (burn) over the first one. Is this correct? Or do you periodically burn a new CD? It generates its own ISO image file; downloading an image file would make no sense given what it does (as opposed to other emergency boot CDs.)

The doc implies that it will work with WIN2000, though it doesn't explicitly say that -- using XP as the "example". Does it handle W2K?

After you boot with Bart's CD, how does one fix the corrupted system? Can you copy/replace files off of the CD? Would you still have to boot 2000's ERD to run FIXMBR or FIXBOOT, if that were needed?

Rod B.

 

[linney]

BartPE just gives you access to the currently installed hard drive, it allows you to make changes on that drive by providing an operating system that can access it when the incumbent operating system is disabled for one reason or another. This is achieved by BartPE being fully contained on, and run from CD, therefor access is not dependent on any particular version of BartPE.

If BartePE cannot access the hard drive because of a physically damaged hard drive, or MBR corruption, it offers you the chance to run ChkDsk in an attempt to fix the problem. A more effective response in fixing this type of problem would be to run FixMbr or FixBoot from XP's Recovery Console. BartPE can be used to copy files from any accessible location on the incumbent hard drive to other locations on or off the drive, including USB, or CD (if you have two CD drives).

The only reason that you may wish to update the BartPE CD, might be if you are using Anti Virus plugins that might be getting out of date, then you would create a new BartPE with later virus definitions included before burning. This is not something I personally bother with as I just use BartPE to access an unbootable system no matter which Windows System is running on the hard drive.

 

[BadBigBen]

That's because it will boot your operating system and takes OS install files off your computer (or install CD).

NO, as Linney and the docs state, it will boot the OS from the created CD, the native installed OS is not in the picture... BartPE uses a plain XP CD as it's creation source, copies the files from the CD to a HDD and performs it's operations on those files and then creates a bootable ISO...

If you make a Bart CD it will boot the installed system as of the time of the CD creation, but will not encompass anything added later. Is this correct?

No, see above... it does not boot the INSTALLED system at all...

The doc implies that if you have the right plastic CD you can create another one and write (burn) over the first one. Is this correct?

Yes, these cd's are called CD-R/W, these media are over writable...

Or do you periodically burn a new CD? It generates its own ISO image file; downloading an image file would make no sense given what it does (as opposed to other emergency boot CDs.)

more or less, depending on your skill on the subject, you may not be able to integrate a certain functionality that another may be able to do...
but it really boils down to the licensing issues and copyright laws that cover the XP media...

The doc implies that it will work with WIN2000, though it doesn't explicitly say that -- using XP as the "example". Does it handle W2K?

BartPE will access any Microsoft OS (3.11, 95, 98, ME, W2k, 2k3, XP, Vista, and 7even)for backing up your personal data, and for fixing the MBR (this even can be done using a linux livecd), where I would be cautious would be the newer OS versions (Vista and 7even) as these use a higher version of NTFS (5.x whereas XP uses 3.1) for fixing media corruption (CHKDSK)...

After you boot with Bart's CD, how does one fix the corrupted system? Can you copy/replace files off of the CD? Would you still have to boot 2000's ERD to run FIXMBR or FIXBOOT, if that were needed?

there are many HowTo's on the internet as to what you are able to do with it... as to copying files off the CD to replace corrupted systemfiles, e.g., would depend on the SP level of the used XP... ERD is not needed to use FIXMBR or FIXBOOT, but neither is BartPE in this case, both can be done with the RecoveryConsole that is provided by the XP CD itself...


Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.

 

[goombawaho]

I make (update) one periodically with Mcafee updates for the command line scanner plugin and use a CD-RW disc so that it can be used many times.

If your only goal is to be able to access the file system, you wouldn't really need to ever update it.

Something that I don't think was mentioned - disk drivers. If you have newer (SATA or special SCSI) drivers needed for your disk controller in XP, you'll need to have those available on an external floppy drive or else BartPE won't see your hard drive.

There is another way - integrating some of the common disk drivers into BartPE. Google DriverPacks & BartPe