Is an ERD or ASR possible without a Floppy or USB?

[PCRepairGuy]

Thank you for taking the time to read this post & answer with your best advice!!

Here are the factors to keep in mind before responding:
1. Floppy drives are no longer common to a computer.
2. "Recovery Disks" are the normal from companies (Which I find very irritating!)
3. Not everyone has a USB jump drive at their disposal.

With that said, I am trying to determine 3 things:
1. Can an ERD or ASR be created without a Floppy Drive and without a USB jump drive?
2. Is there a Freeware program that can help create the ERD/ASR without the Floppy/USB drive?
3. Is there a way to automate the task of updating your ERD or ASR so that you will always have a current copy?
(I was thinking along the lines of copying the necessary files to another HD or emailing the current update to a Gmail account)

I have researched the internet but keep finding links only to using Floppy Drives or USB Jump Drives.
I also keep finding links regarding ERD Commander 2000 which is expensive & not the solution I can use for friends.

Thank you again for your valuable time & appreciated advice!!

[Mobo]

Do you mean an ERD for Windows 2000 or just a backup ?

[PCRepairGuy]

Thanks Mobo for your reply,

I'm am in fact referring to the ERD for any NTFS system like 2000 or XP.
But also since XP now has the ASR in place I was looking to see what could be done there.

Backup is already taken care of with SyncBack, MS Backup, & Erunt.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. It is much appreciated Mobo!!

[Mobo]

For w2k of which I dont have one running so I cant verify right now:

Start / programs / accessories / system tools / backup to launch the backup utility..You will be prompte for a blank, formatted floppy. You can also choose to have the Registry copied to the %systemroot%repair\regback at this time if you wish..I would try the latter Then click on ok and you will be prompted when copy has finished.

Your emergency repair disk should contain Autoexec.bat, config.nt, setup.log.


Now what I would do is first look into a bootable rescue cdrom. What you will need is from a w2k system are:
1- ntdetect.com
2- ntldr
3- boot.ini

Then include the backup from the %systemroot%repair\regback

That should first provide a bootable environment that would get the crippled system running. Then replace the backup that is saved on the disk by means of the rescue utility.

[PCRepairGuy]

Thank you Mobo for your timely reply,

You actually have replied the best out of several replies on other forums. The other people weren't even reading my post and just telling me where to find the backup program in my Start Menu.

Let me ask you this:

1st - Can a batch file be created that would:
1. Boot windows into Safe Mode w/Command Prompt.
2. Copy all files from %Systemroot%\repair to a temporary folder.
3. Copy %Systemroot%\NTDETECT.com to a temporary folder.
4. Copy %Systemroot%\ntldr to a temporary folder.
5. Copy %Systemroot%\boot.ini to a temporary folder.
6. Restart Windows in Normal Mode.
7. Zip the contents of the temporary folder.
8. Email the Zipped file to an email account (like Gmail).

2nd - Can the Unzipped file of the above method be copied onto a CD for use as an ERD or ASR?

You really got me thinking there might be hope for not having a Floppy drive or USB drive!!
Thanks again for your time & helpful advice!! Totally appreciated!!!

[Mobo]

I'm no coder but I can't see why not..