Disaster Assessment and Recovery
In a Nutshell - CIW Course Section 3, Part B3, Chapter 9
Windows 2000 Boot Disks
Format a floppy disk from a Windows 2000 or a Windows NT machine, don't use Windows 95. Copy the following files from the active Windows 2000 partition to the floppy disk:
- Ntldr
- Ntdetect.com
- Boot.ini
- Ntbootdd.sys (if the system has SCSI disks)
- bootsect.dos (if you need to boot to a previously installed OS)
The Ntbootdd.sys is used to initialise SCSI disks, which cannot be initialised by the BIOS. It is only required if SCSI disks are in use on the system.
Alternatively a full set of four boot disks can be made from the Windows 2000 CD by entering d:\bootdisk\makeboot a: where d: is your CD drive.
Creating a Linux Boot Disk
Enter "uname -r" to determine the exact version of the system kernel, which will be required to create a Linux boot disk. The floppy disk should not be mounted as the mkbootdisk process requires exclusive access to the device. The syntax for the command is "mkbootdisk -device /dev/fd0 linux_kernel". "linux_kernel" is the version number of the kernel returned by "uname -r".
ERD
The Windows Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) inspects and repairs the startup environment and the boot sector. It verifies the Windows 2000 system files and replaces missing or damaged system files. It does not backup data, programs or the registry.
To create an Emergency Repair Disk start the backup utility and click on the Emergency Repair Disk option.
This will switch the main window display to the backup tab and display the "Emergency Repair Diskette" dialog as below:
Although we said earlier that this does not backup the registry, you will notice the option on this dialog to do just that. However, it does not backup the registry to the ERD, it backs up the registry to the C:\WINNT\Repair directory.
Windows 2000 Safe Mode
If a Windows 2000 system will not boot correctly, safe mode may provide a way to identify and correct the problem. When the system is starting up, press and hold the F8 key to bring up the start options. The start screen will have some or all of the following:
- Safe Mode
- Safe Mode with Networking
- Safe Mode with Command Prompt
- Enable VGA Mode
- Enable Boot Logging
- Last Known Good Configuration
- Directory Services Restore Mode
- Debugging Mode
The actual options displayed are system dependant, so different systems will show different options.