Automated System Recovery is a new feature in Windows XP that adds another way to perform a system recovery should things go bad during a Windows installation. ASR, shown in Figure 2.18, replaces an older tool from Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0: the Emergency Repair Disk. Figure 2.18. Locating ASR in Windows XP.Automated System Recovery (ASR) uses the Windows XP Backup utility and consists of two parts : a backup of critical files that is made to a local (recommended) or remote storage device, and a floppy disk containing three files critical to the restoration phase. The files that are backed up include the system state data and all files stored on the system volume. System state refers to all of the components that determine the current state of the operating system (hence the clever name ) and includes user accounts, hard drive configuration, network configuration, video settings, hardware configuration, software settings, and various other critical files that are required to run Windows XP Professional properly. Additionally, the system state includes files that are required to start the operating system properly, including those that are found in the %systemroot% directory and boot files such as ntldr and ntdetect . The floppy disk contains three files: asr.sif, asrpnp.sif , and setup.log . If you're thinking that the .SIF extension sounds familiar, you're right. .SIF files are used for answer files to customize unattended installations of Windows XP Professional. The functions of these three files are outlined as follows :
Using asr.sif and asrpnp.sif Although not the intended purpose of asr.sif and asrpnp.sif , they provide a great wealth of information about installed devices and configurations for exploration into Microsoft Product Activation. The Automated System Recovery process is one that is not to be taken lightly. You should not consider using ASR until you have unsuccessfully tried to use other recovery methods , such as Driver Rollback, System Restore, Parallel installations, Last Known Good Configuration, Recovery Console, Safe Mode, or restoration using Windows XP Professional Backup. ASR will restore the system state and other critical files that were backed up at the time of its creation. Backup Frequency The frequency at which you make your ASR backups is critical to having a good experience when using ASR for recovery. Make them regularly, at least weeklymore often if you make frequent changes to the computer. The process to create an Automated System Recovery set is outlined here.
Should the day come when you need to use ASR to recover your computer, proceed as outlined here:
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