Creating a system repair disc

Right now, while you're thinking of it, have Windows 7 make you a system repair disc. It's easy and it's free, if you can spare a blank CD. (Yes, the disc fits on a CD - no DVD required.)

The system repair disc allows you to boot your PC, even if you can't get anything else to work. After it's booted, you have several repair options. The system repair disc isn't a copy of Windows 7: You can't install Windows 7 from the disc. It isn't an image of your computer's hard disk or (shudder!) the kind of "recovery" disk shipped by some PC manufacturers that installs Windows along with all the scumware that came with your new PC. Its sole purpose is to allow you to boot when all else fails, and then present you with several options to help get Windows 7 working again.

The options look like this:

• Startup Repair: Automatically scan the parts of Windows involved in getting your computer started - the files needed to boot Windows 7. Detected problems are fixed automatically. If you don't have a system repair disc but you can see the Windows 7 boot screen, you can run Startup Repair by pressing the F8 key while Windows starts. If you can boot from a Windows 7 installation disc (which you may or may not have received when you bought your new computer), you can run Startup Repair by booting from the installation CD and choosing Repair Your Computer.
  Sometimes PC manufacturers monkey with the Startup Repair program, so if you can't make it work, blame your PC's manufacturer.
• System Restore: Choose a System Restore point and reset your PC to that point. See the section "Using System Restore and Restore Points," later in this tutorial.
  Tip This option is a good one if you just installed a new piece of hardware and Windows doesn't restart. Pick the System Restore point that was created automatically immediately before installing the hardware. (The installer should have created one for you.) Then you can roll back without even booting Windows.
• System Image Recovery: Wipe out your hard drive and replace the contents with an image backup copy - a ghost, if you will. See the section "Working with Backups," later in this tutorial.
• Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool: Run a small program that thoroughly tests your memory. This Microsoft diagnostic runs continuously until you stop it - helpful for detecting intermittent memory problems.
• Command Prompt opens cmd.exe, a program that offers a DOS-style command prompt within a Windows window. Be careful with this option.
  Thar be tygers here. If you want to shoot yourself in the foot, er, explore your options, take a look at the TechNet listing of available commands at
  technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491071.aspx.

To create a system repair disc, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start → All Programs → Maintenance → Create a System Repair Disc.
2. Select your CD drive from the drop-down menu and insert a CD when you're prompted.
3. After you slap a CD in the indicated drive, click Create Disc.
   Windows copies about 140MB of data.
4. When Windows finishes, click X to close the dialog box.
   Your system repair disc is ready to use.