Boot Disk Recovery

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If your hard disk boot partition fails, you can start up from a floppy disk provided you create a Windows NT boot disk prior to the error condition occurring. If you have installed a multi-partition system and your boot partition contains Windows NT, you can also use your boot disk to start up from your floppy disk drive. After you have started your system using the floppy disk drive, you can perform procedures to test and repair any errors that exist.




This is likely to be on the exam because the maintenance of a boot disk and an Emergency Recovery Disk set is one of the most powerful methods for resolving many startup problems.

Most computers are started up from their floppy disk drives—commonly given the volume label A. If your computer is set up to start up from your hard drive, you must change this in your computer’s BIOS setup. Press the keystroke displayed in the startup sequence to open your computer’s setup. Then change the boot sequence to start up from the floppy disk drive prior to attempting to boot from a boot floppy disk. If your Windows NT Work-station is a NetPC computer and does not have a floppy disk, you cannot boot from a floppy disk.

To create a floppy boot disk, do the following:

1.	Insert a blank floppy disk in your floppy disk drive.
2.	Double-click on My Computer on your Desktop.
3.	Right-click on the icon for your floppy disk drive, and then select the Format command from the shortcut menu.
4.	Click on the OK button to begin the formatting, and then click on the OK button to confirm that formatting occurred.
5.	Select the Windows NT Explorer command from the Programs submenu of the Start menu.
6.	Select the boot.ini, NTLDR, ntbootdd.sys, and ntdetect.com files in the root directory of your hard drive in the Windows NT Explorer. This directory is commonly the C:\ drive.
7.	Right-click on any of the selected files and drag them to the icon for your floppy disk drive.
8.	Choose the Copy Here command from the shortcut menu.
9.	Restart your computer with the boot floppy disk in the floppy disk drive to test the disk.