Lab 12.1: Creating an Emergency Repair Disk

One of the many tools used to preserve the system configuration in Windows NT and Windows 2000 is the Emergency Repair Disk (ERD). The ERD contains key system configuration data that is used during the emergency repair process to restore the system to an operating state. You must remember that the ERD is not a bootable disk. Once the emergency repair process starts, you are prompted to insert the ERD to recover the key sections of the Registry.

It is recommended that you create an ERD every time you update the system configuration. Doing so is part of the backup process. This exercise will walk you through the process to create the ERD.

Upon completion of this lab, you will be able to:

• Create an Emergency Repair Disk

Set Up

For this lab, you will need a computer running Windows 2000 and a blank disk labeled Emergency Repair Disk.

Exercise

To create an Emergency Repair Disk,

1. Start the Windows 2000 Backup program:

   Start Programs Accessories System Tools Backup

2. On the Welcome tab, click the Emergency Repair Disk button.

3. In the Emergency Repair Disk window, select the option Also Backup the Registry to the Repair Directory. This step creates or updates the Registry files stored in the Repair directory. You can use these files if the ERD becomes damaged.

4. Label a floppy disk Emergency Repair Disk and insert it into the floppy drive. Click Next to continue.

5. When the system has finished writing the files onto the disk, click OK to finish.

6. Close the Backup utility.