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creating a recovery disc of windows xp

Anonymous
2013-02-09T17:52:43+00:00

i have a laptop with windows xp sp3 32bit. don't have any bootable cd or recovery disc.

how to make any cd or recovery disc so that if my system goes bad, i can use to reinstall win xp?

i mean that i want to make a disc for reinstalling the full os anytime i wish or when there is some problem.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Recovery and backup

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  1. LemP 74,930 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2013-02-09T19:05:35+00:00

    1.  If your laptop came with Windows pre-installed, the manufacturer of the laptop probably provided a means to restore the computer to its "fresh from the factory" state.  Often, this is a hidden partition on the hard drive that you invoke with a particular combination of keys.  See the documentation for your computer. 

    The restore from a hidden partition will restore Windows and any applications that came pre-loaded on the computer.  You'll have to apply all subsequent service packs and critical updates.

    None of the "free trial" software will work, and you MUST uninstall any free-trial antivirus application (using the appropriate uninstaller from the a/v manufacturer) and then install your own antivirus. 

    You'll also have to re-install any applications that you installed after you purchased the computer as well as restoring from backups all of your data files (documents, photos, videos, music, etc.).

    2.  If your laptop came with Windows pre-installed, you probably have a c:\i386 folder.  This includes compressed copies of most of the files needed to install Windows.  I've never attempted this, and I'm not sure how reliable it is, but there are numerous web sites that purport to give instructions for creating an installation CD from the C:\i386 folder.  See http://bit.ly/XuQxMy 

    Note that if this works, if will install the version of Windows that was originally installed on the computer.  Just as in using a hidden restore partition (1 above), you'll have to apply all subsequent service packs and critical updates.  You'll also have to re-install all of the hardware drivers, all of your software applications, and all of your data (documents, photos, videos, music, etc.).

    3.  My suggestion is that you obtain cloning or imaging software and create a clone or an image of your hard drive.  This will enable you to restore the entire system -- not just Windows, but all of your applications and data -- just the way it was at the time the image or clone was created.  The catch here is that you'll have to put the clone or image on a hard drive (typically, people use an externally-connected drive for this purpose) because it will be much larger than will fit on a CD or DVD. 

    A cloned drive can be just swapped in for the existing drive and will run with no further ado.  Of course, you'll have to remove the drive from its external enclosure in order to put it into the computer.

    An image must be restored to the drive in the computer using the software that created the image.  Typically, imaging software includes a means to create a bootable CD that boots to a non-Windows environment from which you can restore the image from your external hard drive.

    If you have a Western Digital drive, you can get a version of Acronis True Image free from WD (http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119) or you can obtain cloning software separately (this is not a comprehensive list and is no particular order; some are free, others not):

    Acronis True Image Home

    Easeus ToDo Backup

    Paragon Drive Copy  or Partition Manager Personal

    Casper

    Norton Ghost

    XXClone

    Macrium Reflect Free

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