How To Create Windows XP And Vista Bootable System Rescue Disk

Windows is well known for its instability, it may not be perfect but Windows XP Service Pack 3 is by far the most stable operating system I’ve used, better than Windows Vista, Me, 98 and 95. However, a bad driver or virus infection could damage some of the system files, this might cause your computer from booting up.

Back in the good old days, creating a bootable floppy disk is easy, right click on the icon and format it with the option ‘create bootable disk’. That was the pre-Windows XP days.

In Windows XP, Vista and possibly 7, boot rescue disk is no longer available, now it is known as automated recovery disk (ARD). To create ARD:

Start –> All Program –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Backup

A new dialog box will appear, if you’re unsure of the settings, select the wizard mode.


Keeping a backup copy of all your files is perhaps the best practice, at times, these type of recovery process might not work and if it does, certain files will be missing. Get an external backup disk and try FastCopy.

p.s. Blue screen of death? This error is probably caused by a ‘memory leaked’ problem, could be software or hardware. If reinstalling Windows does not solve this problem or this blue screen of death appears mid way during the installation process, it is definitely a hardware problem.