Question about a 'boot floppy'

I have learned that making a bootable, recovery floppy disk containing
the three files - boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com can be invaluable
to getting a problem XP installation to work again.

What I am wondering is - suppose I need to modify something in, say,
the boot.ini file (such as the 'partition(#)'. Can I do such an edit
on the problem machine somehow? Or am I forced to do it on a second
working machine using. for example, notepad.exe? If I don't happen to
have a second machine, am I in deep doo doo? Maybe there is a small
edit program that can be co-located on the recovery floppy that could
run from the floppy?

Or is this a dumb question? I hope not.

Jethro
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