Re: No floppy drive - In desperate need of an emergency boot disk

From: Renae (Renae_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 09/10/04 

Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:35:08 -0700

Thanks so much....I probably do just need a DOS recovery disk. My laptop is
almost a year old and each time I have to start from scratch it takes days.
I have to apply Sony's many, many, many updates (each requiring a reboot). I
am required to install all of the original software that takes forever. I
then get to uninstall 90% of it because it is not needed....Then go through
all of the Windows updates, Symantec updates, load all of my spyware control
and the updates, and on and on. A complete back up of the hard drive sounds
like a perfect solution. How would you go about copying the mirror hard
drive on an external hard drive to your C:? (maybe a stupid question and the
answer will probably come to me as soon as I press the post button). I
really appreciate your time! I will be using your advise!

"...D." wrote:

> >> > I do not have a Windows XP CD - it came bundled with my Sony
> >> > software....Everything I have seen regarding the creation of an emergency
> >> > start-up/boot disk for XP has needed either a floppy drive or the original
> >> > Windows CD. Does anyone know of a solution - I will be forever greatful!
> >> > Thanksm Renae
>
> >> ummm.. If you mean backing-up, I have heard of backing up to another
> >> partition on your Hard Drive (ex. Making C drive a C AND D [or whatever]
> >> drive)
> >> "No floppy drive-Need start-up/boot disk" wrote:
>
> "Renae" <Renae@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> >I really need a Windows emergency disk. Each time I have had a "generic"
> >Windows crash, I have to use Sony's Recovery Wizard. This completely wipes
> >out the partition and you have to start from scratch. I am not even allowed
> >to use DOS functions. In the past when I have had Windows problems, I could
> >boot from an emergency disk and resolve the problem without having to wipe
> >out the hard drive. Thanks so much for your assistance....Any suggestions?
> >"Tony" wrote:
>
> First, I believe that bundled Sony software is your recovery CD, I have an
> eMachines with 2 CDs, and I am pretty sure I boot with Disk 1. But I don't
> know if I have to install with it, or if I can access the computer from it.
>
> But you want something to boot the computer. Throwing aside the comment that
> "what in the heck is wrong - why are you crashing in the first place, even
> once?", Hmmmm, I do not think that you can boot Windows from floppies -
> Windows is too big. I have a DOS boot floppy, but I don't even know how I got
> it - maybe a Win 98 disk?
>
> Anyway, you want suggestions - here is mine, buy an external hard drive. They
> are getting very cheap. Use it to copy everything you'll want to keep in case
> of a crash. Movies, music, docs, - save every program you download in a
> pre-installed form to your hard drive, and occasionally plug in the External
> USB hard drive and copy this stuff over.
>
> Now, you can buy "imaging" software - it makes a complete backup of your hard
> drive, operating system included. I have Norton Ghost. it'll copy to CDs
> (ridiculous) and DVDs also if you won't come up with a few bucks for an
> external HD. I've never used it though - I do have the external HD and
> everything saved over to it though, just in case. I'd have to re-install the
> programs again, but that's OK.
>
> ...D.
>