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to the Unleashing Windows Index When Windows NT 4.0 is installed, you are prompted to create an Emergency Repair Disk. But without an understanding of what the Emergency Repair Disk does, it's hard for many people to justify why this simple little disk is important. However, if the Windows NT Registry or boot files become corrupted, the only way to recover the system, without completely reinstalling Windows NT, is using the Emergency Repair Disk.
In this article, we'll look at what files are contained on the Emergency Repair Disk, how to create or update one, and how it is used. In later columns, we'll look at how to recover information using the Emergency Repair disk.
The Emergency Repair disk allows recovery of primarily two types of information: the Windows NT Registry and the Windows NT boot files. However, the only information that is actually stored on the Emergency Repair Disk is a backup of Windows NT Registry files.
When Windows NT is installed, Windows NT makes a backup of all the registry files and puts the backups into the \REPAIR directory of the Windows NT System. The following files are located in this directory:
When Windows NT is installed, it prompts for the creation of the Emergency Repair Disk. If an Emergency Repair Disk is to be created, the Windows NT Setup program will copy the files created in the \REPAIR directory to the Emergency Repair Disk.
However, if the Emergency Repair Disk was not created or if Registry information has changed since it was created, a utility called RDISK allows the Emergency Repair Disk to be created or updated. When RDISK is run, either from the Command Prompt or from the Run item on the Start menu, it displays a window with four options:
However, if just RDISK is used to update the Emergency Repair Disk, the DEFAULT._, SAM._, and SECURITY._ files are not updated. To update these files, use RDISK with the /S parameter. Typing RDISK /S updates all of those files on the Emergency Repair Disk. Using the /S parameter does not display the RDISK option window, rather it automatically starts the creation/update of the Emergency Repair disk.
If a system is recovered from an Emergency Repair disk that was not created using the /S parameter, the Windows NT system will default back to the original account information and passwords from the last time the /S parameter was used. If the disk was never updated with the /S parameter, then the default Windows NT account information and passwords will be used.
The Emergency Repair Disk should be updated whenever the following events occur:
This covers the basic creation of the Emergency Repair Disk and what information is stored on it. In the next column, we'll explore how to recover information by using the Emergency Repair Disk and what other items are required for the repair process to work correctly. We'll examine what can and can't be fixed in the repair process.