Fix, Recover, Restore and Repair Windows XP - Using Automated System Recovery (ASR) and Restoring Windows XP to an SATA Hard Disk Drive

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Using "Automated System Recovery" (ASR)

Windows XP Professional version supports a back-up and recovery feature called Automated System Recovery - ASR - that makes use of a floppy disk to recover the system's configuration files, but you should note well that the Home edition of Windows XP does not support it fully. It allows the creation and saving of the system-state back-up file, which is usually over a gigabyte in size, but cannot restore it. This is probably why Microsoft has hidden NTbackup (NTBackup.exe) program on the Windows XP Home CD, because it is used to create the ASR back-up file.

Note that only the configuration files such as the Windows Registry files are backed up or restored, not ordinary data or program files, which should be stored on recordable CDs or DVDs, Therefore, since all of the programs and data files have to be restored after the operating system itself has been restored, it should only be used in an emergency when all other options have failed to recover the system.

The ASR feature in the Professional edition of Windows XP allows the back-up to be restored without reinstalling Windows, but you can also format the hard drive, reinstall Windows XP, and then run ASR to restore the settings.

Using Automated System Recovery in Windows XP Professional

1. - Click Start => Programs => Accessories => System Tools => Backup. Switch to Advanced Mode. Click the Automated System Recovery Wizard button. Click Next, select where to store the ASR files, and click Finish.

A floppy disk is required on which to store the setup information so that the restoration process can boot the system from it and access the main ASR files. The main ASR files, which take up quite a lot of disk space (too much space to be stored on a 650MB recordable CD), have to be stored somewhere on the main boot hard disk drive, on subsidiary hard disk drives, or on a DVD+R / DVD-R / DVD-RW disk.

2. - To use ASR to recover the system, boot the system with the Windows XP Professional CD. To do that you may have to set the CD-ROM drive as the first boot drive in the BIOS. When prompted, press the F2 key to run Automated System Recovery. The floppy disk created in Step 1 is required. There will be a delay while ASR loads the required drivers. It then formats the hard disk drive automatically and installs a plain copy of Windows XP. After that is completed, the ASR Wizard runs, and you have 90 seconds to direct it to where you made it store the back-up files the first time you ran it. The system is then restored with all of the settings that it had before a recovery was made necessary, but you have to restore the data and program files from other back-ups, or from the program manufacturers' CDs or DVDs.