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emergency repair disk - what value?

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7 replies

by pchw

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Every time I read about the emergency repair disk for NT4.0, it leaves me with a question. If you can only put so much on the repair disk, how can it work properly? I was thinking that it must pull information off the hard drive you are attemptingto repair, but I don't really understand. In order to truly repair it, I would think it would need much more information than it can store on a floppy disk. Can someone clarify how it actually works?

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by syscokid

First of all, Microsoft says "The ERD is intended to provide just enough recovery to restore your computer to a bootable state. It is not a replacement for regular backups."

When you use the /s command-line switch with the Rdisk.exe tool, the Sam._ and Security._ database files are copied to the %SystemRoot%\Repair folder and to the ERD.

If the files are too big to fit on a floppy, create an ERD without copying the Sam._ and Security._ database files; run the Rdisk.exe tool with no command-line switches. Use the Update Repair Info option, and click Yes when you are prompted to create an ERD.

This will allow you to boot, and use the files in %systemroot%\repair to continue. Microsoft also recommends making a copy of your repair folder is case the original becomes corrupt.

by lizzy

As in the first answer, the ERD does not restore all files. you would be better off having the users default save location for office documents be to their home drive on the server, ask that they back up their own files regularly to disk and create an image CD of the PC with Ghost or another similar imaging software. If the PC crashes, just Ghost the image back onto it and restore files from the server or disk. Ghost only takes about 15 minutes to make an image and about 8 minutes to reimage a hard drive. Also, besides not always working in cases of disk failure, ERD's need to be updated or recreated if there are any changes made to the system--Ghost doesn't seem to take as long and can restore more. Bye!

by stuff

I can't recall its name but in an inf or ini file on the ERD there is a list of files, their versions and checksums, this would allow a repair installation to detect a corruption in a file rather than a deletion and prompt for the apropriate disk from which to restore it. It does work quite well.

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