Why You Need An Emergency Startup disk

RIVER BENDER - April,  2003

One of these days your PC is going to crash. Unless you're the luckiest person alive your hard drive is someday going to fail or you're going to miss important startup files or even have a lightning strike and your PC will refuse to boot. Before this happens you'd better have an emergency startup disk while your PC is healthy because you won't be able to create it after the trouble occurs. It only takes a few minutes and all you need is a blank diskette and your Windows CD. If you don't have your Windows CD you might try borrowing one from someone because the process will ask you for it. Startup disks can be created on Windows 95/98/Me/XP systems as follows: I'll discuss how to use the Windows 98 startup diskette after it's created. You may find it used differently for other versions of Windows. For example, the Windows 95 startup diskette doesn't provide any CD support but the others do.

Create a Startup Diskette For Windows 95/98/Me

Insert a blank floppy diskette into the floppy disk drive. Click Start, point to Settings, and click Control Panel. Double-click Add/Remove Programs. Click the Startup Disk tab, and then click Create Disk. Click OK when prompted. Have your Windows CD available.

Create a Startup Diskette for Windows XP:

(This creates a MS-DOS startup diskette that allows you to boot to a MS-DOS prompt. The diskette does not contain any other tools or utilities)

Insert a blank floppy diskette into the floppy disk drive. Click Start, and then click My Computer. Right-click the A drive icon, and then click Format. Check "Create an MS-DOS startup disk," and then click Start. Follow any prompts. Have your Windows CD available.

When to use your Windows 98 startup diskette:

You will need your startup diskette only if all else fails, i.e., you can't get into Windows or even the safe mode. Put your emergency startup diskette in the floppy drive and turn on your your PC and a menu will appear with the following: (1) Start Computer with CD-ROM Support (2) Start without CD-ROM Support and (3) View the help file. I suggest you first print out the 8-page help file because it has lots of information on how to use the startup diskette. Use the ALT key to access the menu at the top of the help file.

How to use your Windows 98 startup diskette:

Basically what the startup diskette does for you is help you troubleshoot using the tools on the diskette to at least be able to boot in the safe mode. If you can already boot in the safe mode (CTRL or F8 key during boot) then you don't need to use the startup diskette. Once in the safe mode you have access to more extensive troubleshooting aid available in Windows Help (Start/Help).

At the beginning menu of the three items select start with CD-ROM support if you intend to use a CD. For example, if you're trying to be able to boot so you can reinstall Windows then you'll need the CD-ROM drive to read the Windows CD. By the way, the CD drivers will be generic only. If your CD-ROM drive doesn't work you're going to need the drivers that came with it, which can be a problem finding out what they are. They need to be placed in the C: folder.

Since your hard drive could be out of commission the emergency startup diskette creates a substitute 2MB RAMdrive where it stores all the diagnostic tools for troubleshooting along with CD-ROM drivers. This may cause your CD-ROM to be pushed back 1 drive letter, i.e., from Drive D to E.

The tools that are useful on the startup diskette and which will only be available from the DOS prompt are Scandisk, Chkdsk, Sys.com, Fdisk, Format and Uninstal. Scandisk (or Chkdsk) will check your hard drive(s) for errors and possibly make repairs. The Sys command will copy system files back to your hard drive that may be missing or corrupted. Fdisk and Format are necessary for installing a new hard drive or for starting over fresh with a clean hard drive. Uninstal is used to remove Windows 98 from your PC. How to use these tools is explained in the 8-page Help file shown on the menu when you boot using the emergency startup diskette.

Now go make yourself an emergency startup diskette before it's too late. Label it and try to remember where you store it.

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