Boot Disk Tab

Boot Disk Tab - this page makes an XP/2000/NT Boot Disk and a DOS Boot Disk.  Choose one from the dropdown box, insert a diskette, and press the Boot Disk button.  A wizard will appear and guide you through the Boot Disk making process.

In Windows 95/98/ME, WinRescue only has one option on the Boot Disk tab and that makes a DOS Boot Disk. 

Please note that these are floppy diskettes and not CDs.  Boot CDs are made in a different and more complex way, which WinRescue does not do.

XP/2000/NT Boot Disk

The XP/2000/NT Boot Disk can be used when you cannot get to the beginning menu of WinXP/2000/NT.  A diskette will be formatted and the necessary files added to it.  This boot disk will work with FAT and NTFS.

When making the XP/2000/NT Boot Disk, an input box will appear.  Put the drive letter of the diskette and press OK.  You will be asked if you want to format the diskette.  If you answer, yes, a Format window will open.  You must click on the proper button to proceed.  Do not do "Quick Format" or "Create an MS-DOS startup disk".  When the formatting is finished, you must click on the Close button.  Doing so will close the Format window and WinRescue will continue making the XP/2000/NT Boot Disk.

At the end you will be asked if you want to back up the registry.  The backup will be put in the Windows\Repair\RegBack directory and may be used by WinXP/2000/NT to recover from a crash.

After a diskette has been created, check out the new diskette.  Place the diskette in the drive and restart the computer.  If the beginning menu appears, the boot disk is good.  Store it in a safe place.

If the diskette does not work, it may be due to a bad diskette.  Try it again with a different diskette.

Once you have a good Boot Disk there is no need to make a new one, unless you change the partitions, hard drives, or computers.

DOS Boot Disk

The DOS Boot Disk can be used to automatically open the DOS version of WinRescue.  This is used to restore Windows when Windows crashes.

The following section applies only to WinXP/2000/NT:

Since WinXP/2000/NT does not come with the necessary files to make a boot disk (the "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" option in WinXP on the Format screen of Windows Explorer does not provide all of the needed files), you will need to download the necessary files from the internet.  The DOS Boot Disk Wizard will do this automatically (this paragraph does not apply to Win95/98/ME).

In WinXP/2000/NT you can skip the downloading step if you already have a bootable diskette with DOS on it or if you have a bootable diskette with NTFSDOS (or a similar operating system) on it.

Please note that MS-DOS will not access an NTFS drive, so you need a DOS oriented NTFS operating system.  There are now two such operating system available: NTFSDOS Pro and NTFS4DOS.  NTFSDOS Pro is expensive and NTFS4DOS is free.

NTFSDOS Pro (available from another company) makes two boot disks.  After creating them with NTFSDOS, put the first one in the diskette drive and run the DOS Boot Disk part of WinRescue skipping the part that formats the diskette.  After completing the DOS Boot Disk, be sure that the autoexec.bat file on the first diskette has a command to run ntfspro.exe on the second diskette before the command that runs the DOS version of WinRescue.  When using the two diskettes to start your computer, you will have to insert the second diskette after the first diskette at startup and then once NTFSDOS is loaded, you will have to put the first diskette with the DOS version of WinRescue on it back in.  Please note that the free version of NTFSDOS Pro cannot write to an NTFS drive and so even though the DOS version of WinRescue runs, it will not be able to restore anything unless you purchase NTFSDOS Pro.  NTFSDOS Pro costs over $1000.

NTFS4DOS is free for private users.  First, you should download MSDOS (one of the first steps of the DOS Boot Disk creation process does this) and install it on a diskette.  Then you should run NTFS4DOS and have it put NTFS4DOS on the diskette (you may need to remove some files to make room for NTFS4DOS on the diskette).  Once you have this diskette, you should probably try it out by starting your computer with it in the diskette drive and then once it is loaded switching to the NTFS drive by typing in its drive letter, a colon, and press the Enter key.  If you get an error, it does not work.  For some reason I have not gotten it to recognize my NTFS drive, but other people have gotten it to.  Once you get the diskette working, run the DOS Boot Disk process in WinRescue and skip the part that formats the diskette.  WinRescue will put its programs on the diskette.

After a diskette has been created, check out the new diskette.  Place the diskette in the drive and restart the computer.  If the DOS version of WinRescue begins, the boot disk is good.  Please do not press the Restore button unless you have had a crash and you really want to restore to a backup (the Repair Registry or the Original Registry is the original registry and should only be restored to as a last resort).  Exit the DOS version and store the Boot Disk in a safe place.

If the diskette does not work, it may be due to a bad diskette.  Try it again with a different diskette.