How to Create an Emergency Repair Disk in Windows 2000

This article describes how to create an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) in Windows 2000 for use with the Windows 2000 repair process.

To create an ERD:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup.
2. On the Tools menu, click Create an Emergency Repair Disk.

You can use the ERD for the following repair functions:

• Inspect and repair the startup environment.
• Verify the Windows 2000 system files and replace missing or damaged files.
• Inspect and repair the boot sector.

NOTE: When you attempt to repair Windows 2000, it asks if you have an ERD diskette, if you do not have the diskett, press L and the computer attempts to locate your Windows 2000 installation to perform repairs. This process looks for the Boot.ini file on your computer partition and reads the ARC paths to your operating system(s). The computer then attempts to load the following hive for each ARC path:
This attempt finds which installation versions matches the installation CDROM used to do the repair.

If the Boot.ini file cannot be read, or the software hive is corrupt, the repair is not able to proceed. At this time, you must have a ERD diskette containing a valid Setup.log file for that computer before repairs are possible.

The registry hives saved during setup are in the following folder: The registry hives are used during a FAST repair only, otherwise you need to use Recovery Console to manually copy a more recent registry hive saved by NTbackup in the following folder: For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: