Insight into the boot disk of all systems

  Microsoft's operating system version is numerous, for different operating systems, its boot disk features and uses are also different. Microsoft's name for the boot disk seems to be a bit confusing, such as: Emergency Startup Disk, Emergency Boot Disk, Emergency Repair Disk (ERD), installation boot disk, system boot Disk, etc. In addition, many anti-virus software, such as Kingsoft Internet Security, KILL, KV3000, etc. also provide the creation of emergency anti-virus boot disk. What are the differences and uses between these different types of so-called boot disks? This article will explain the boot disk characteristics of several major types of operating systems.

First, Win9X/Me boot disk;

The boot disk mentioned here should be called Emergency Startup Disk or install boot disk. It refers to a floppy disk with special features, which is mainly used to start the computer when the Win9X/Me system is completely paralyzed, in order to find the cause of the error or reinstall the system. The boot disk contains more than 20 files, including common DOS commands, which can perform disk partitioning, disk formatting, and file copying in a DOS environment. At the same time, it also contains a CD-ROM driver that allows you to use the CD-ROM directly in a DOS environment when the Win9X/Me system fails to boot. ;

It should be noted that if you want to use the boot disk to start the operating system, you should set it in the BIOS to boot the system from the floppy disk first.

1. Create a Win98/ME boot disk;

Method 1: During the Win98/Me installation process, you will be prompted to create a boot disk. If you did not create a boot disk during the installation process, you can open the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs, and click Start Disk.

Method 2: After Win98 is installed, a BootDisk.bat file will be generated in the "WindowsCommand" subdirectory. An EBD subdirectory will also be created. This file can be used to create a boot floppy disk. The production step is to enter the Bootdisk.bat program in the "WindowsCommand" subdirectory. A prompt message will appear. If the boot disk is placed in the floppy drive A, select 1; if the boot disk is in B, select 2, then press Start the creation of the boot disk with any key. ;

In fact, hidden in the "WindowsCommand Ebd" directory is all the files in the boot disk. If you want to make a boot disk later, just copy all the files in the directory to the floppy disk, and the speed must be faster than the conventional method.

2. Features of Win98/Me boot disk;

If you start the computer with Win98/Me boot disk, the system will display the boot menu. There are three options for loading commonly used CDs. ROM drive or perform a normal clean boot:;

1.Start computer with CD-ROM support;
2.Start computer without CD-ROM support;
3.View the Help file. ;

If you select 1, the Config.sys file loads the corresponding CD-ROM driver and then loads 2MB RAMDrive. RAMDrive stores the diagnostic tools necessary to solve common problems. RAMDrive is created with system memory (RAM) during the processing of the Config.sys file to emulate a physical hard disk. Without creating a RAMDrive, there is not enough space on a single 1.44 MB floppy disk for the diagnostic tools and CD-ROM drivers. Since RAMDrive was created with system RAM during the processing of the Config.sys file, it only exists temporarily. If the computer restarts normally, it will disappear. ;

Note: RAMDrive may cause the drive letter of the CD-ROM to be extended one letter backward. If the CD-ROM drive letter is drive D:, it will now become drive E:. ;

Second, Win NT/2000 boot disk, emergency repair disk;

When installing Win NT/2000, as long as it is not added after Win NT or Win NT32 "/X (indicating that the installation of the installation boot disk is prohibited during the installation process) or "/b (indicating that the installation boot disk is loaded on the hard disk, so you do not need to insert and remove the floppy disk) suffix, then Windows NT will let you during the installation process Insert three floppy disks (four floppy disks for Windows 2000) to generate the Setup Boot Disk. In addition, during the subsequent installation process, you will be asked if you want to create an emergency repair disk. Microsoft generally calls it The Emergency Repair Disk (ERD for short) focuses on the Windows 2000 operating system as an example to illustrate the differences between the Setup Boot Disk and the Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) and various features.

1. How to create an installation boot disk and an emergency repair disk;

If you did not make it during the installation process, you can use the following more convenient method:;
Win2000 installation boot disk, also can be called System boot disk, which can be used on the Win2000 CD Bootdiskmakeboot.exe or MakeBT32.exe program is created. The former is created in Win9X/Me with the former, and the latter is used under WinNT/2000. Note that 4 blank floppy disks are needed during the production process.
If you want to make an emergency repair disk for Windows 2000, you can click on Create Emergency Boot Disk in "Start /Programs /Accessories /System Tools /Backup Programs". The emergency repair disk only needs a floppy disk, it does not have any startup itself. The function of the computer is only used when repairing Win2000 failures. The repair process depends on the information stored in the %systemroot% epair folder, and the folder cannot be changed and deleted. It is also best to select "also back up the registry to repair." The "In directory" option saves the current registry file to the "Regback" folder in the systemroot/repair folder. As shown in the figure, this is useful when the hard disk has a problem and needs to restore the system.
And to make Win NT's emergency repair disk can be created with the disk repair program Rdisk.exe, then the file will also be copied from the %systemroot% epair to the floppy disk.;

2. Features of the installation boot disk and emergency repair disk;

Install the boot disk, as its name suggests, its main role is to use for the new installation of Windows NT/2000; and the emergency repair disk, which contains The current Windows system settings information, if the computer can not start or the system files are destroyed or deleted, you can use the emergency repair disk to repair the computer. It should be noted that when creating an emergency repair disk, it does not back up files or related programs, so it cannot replace the regular backup process of the system! ;

The Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) feature helps resolve system file issues, boot environment (if dual boot or multiboot system), and partition boot sectors on the boot volume. If you use a floppy disk to start the installation disk and the emergency repair disk, you can solve many operating system startup problems, which will be discussed below. In addition, emergency repairs can be attempted even if an emergency repair disk is not created; however, some changes to the system, such as service pack updates, are lost or require reinstallation.

3. How to use emergency repair on a system that cannot be started;

You can use the emergency repair feature of Windows 2000 to solve problems that cause the computer to fail to start, including the registry, system files, Partition boot sector and boot environment. However, if you do not use the backup tool to create an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD), you will not be able to use the emergency repair process to resolve system problems. If the ERD is not created and you still try to repair the computer using the emergency repair process, the process does not resolve the issue. ;

The emergency repair process has been introduced before, and will not be explained here.

4. Explain the details of the emergency repair disk;

When installing Win NT/2000, the installer will create the registry information under %systemroot%System32Config. In order to be able to restore the system, the installer will also create a %systemroot%Repair folder, which said that the content in the ERD disk is mainly the copy of the file. And it mainly contains the following files:;

Autoexec.nt: is a copy of "system32Autoexec.nt" in the root directory, used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.
Config.nt: is a copy of "system32Config.nt" in the root directory, used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.
Default: HKEY_USERDEFAULT registry key, which is a compressed file. ;
Ntuser.dat: For Windows NT, it is a compressed version of "%systemroot%ProfilesDefault UserNtuser.dat"; for Win2000, it is a compressed version of "Documents and SettingsDefault UserNtuser.dat" in the root directory. .
Sam: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESAM registry key, which is a compressed file. ;
Security: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESECURITY registry key, is a compressed file. ;
Setup.log: Records which files are installed and periodic redundancy check information used during the repair process. ;
Software: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE registry key, for compressed files. ;
System: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEM registry key, for compressed files. ;

It is important to note that for Win NT systems, if you run the Rdisk.exe disk fix from its Explorer, it will not update the above Default, Sam. , Security file. To update all of the above files, you can type "Rdisk /S" in "Start Run" and use the "/S" suffix option to update all registry keys in the Repair folder under the system root. ;

5.Win NT/2000 boot boot disk production;

The boot boot disk mentioned here means that when Win NT/2000 is installed, it can be started directly through the disk. Win NT/2000 system. Making a Boot Boot Disk Win NT/2000 boot boot disk is also different from Win9X/Me boot boot disk, which cannot be created by formatting.

To make a boot disk for Win NT/2000, you must first format a floppy disk under the WinNT/2000 operating system; then boot.ini, bootfont.bin in the Win NT/2000 root directory. The ntdetect.com, ntldr, bootsect.dos five files are copied to the floppy disk you just made. In this way, once the system file in the root directory is damaged and the system cannot be booted, the boot disk can be used for emergency.

Third, the anti-virus software boot disk;

The anti-virus software on the market generally provides the function of creating a rescue disk, which generally contains two functions:;

First, the role of booting the boot disk, that is, first boot the system to DOS state

Second, the function of the emergency DOS anti-virus disk (Rescue Scan Disk), that is, after booting with a floppy disk, if the computer system memory or If the boot area is infected by a virus, you can use this emergency disinfection disk to check for viruses and remove them. ;

In addition, some anti-virus software boot disk has some additional features, such as backup repair hard disk partition table information and so on.

Take Kingsoft Internet Security 2001 as an example. It requires two blank and clean floppy disks to make "Emergency Boot Disk" and "Emergency (DOS) Antivirus Disk". A rescue floppy disk created by Kill98 antivirus software backs up the important system files and settings needed to boot the system. If the virus causes the system to fail to boot properly, or if it infects memory during the boot process, you should use the rescue disk to boot the system. This will ensure that the system is clean (no virus in memory).

  Also note that even if a rescue disk has been created, the ambulance disk should be updated whenever the system hardware or settings change and the version of the anti-virus software is upgraded. It is important to have a current rescue disk on hand, which ensures that the computer is turned on at any time and retains important system data and settings. ;