Tips for Using Restoration Tools

Windows XP Professional provides administrators with a number of tools for dealing with situations in which the computer or a component of the computer must be restored to a previous state in order to undo a problem. Table B.4 provides a summary of these tools and provides examples of the types of problems and conditions for which each tool can be used.

Table B.4: Windows XP Restore Tools

Computer Status	Problem	Recovery Tool	Description
Boots	Bad device driver	Driver Rollback	Restore a device driver to the previously installed version.
		System Restore	Restores the computer to a previously operational state.
Normal boot fails	Bad device driver	Last Known Good	Boot using Last Known Good configuration and then perform a Driver Rollback.
	Configuration error	Last Known Good	Select this startup option to try to restore system configuration settings to the state they were in at the last successful login.
		Safe Mode	Manually undo system configuration changes to recover from error or perform a Driver Rollback or System Restore.
Total boot failure	Missing/bad files	Floppy boot disk Manually extract system files from Windows XP CD.
		ASR	Boot using the ASR disk and restore boot sector and system files using the Windows XP CD and recovery data stored on the local hard disk.
	Unrecoverable	Restore Wizard	Reinstall the operating system and applications and then use the Backup utility to restore user files.