S 6.46 Creating a start-up disk for Windows 95

Initiation responsibility: Head of IT Section, IT Security Management

Implementation responsibility: Administrator, IT users

An emergency floppy disk should be created for every Windows 95 computer. If system problems then arise, it is possible to restart the computer and restore user-specific profiles where applicable.

For this purpose, on the one hand a system floppy disk is required that can be used to restart all computers; on the other hand a user/computer-specific floppy disk containing the individual settings for the user and for the respective computer.

Creating a system start-up floppy disk

With the register card START-UP DISK under the control panel option SOFTWARE, a system start-up floppy disk can be created which can be used for all computers. However, a Windows 95 CD is also required. Alternatively, an experienced user can manually copy all the relevant files onto a floppy disk. These include, for example, COMMAND.COM, IO.SYS, DRVSPACE.BIN and MSDOS.SYS. In this case the german keyboard driver KEYB.COM and KEYBOARD.SYS, COUNTRY.SYS should also be copied and, if applicable, further system files (e.g. CD-ROM driver). The german keyboard can be set with the command KEYB GR, KEYBOARD.SYS. If applicable, an additional floppy disk can be used for other necessary files, e.g. an editor, a program for hard disk compression or backup programs.

Creating user/computer-specific floppy disks

For this purpose a previously formatted floppy disk and the program EMERGENCY RECOVERY UTILITY (ERU) will be required, which are supplied with the system. The program is not installed as standard but can be found on the Windows 95 CD-ROM. With the help of this program, the relevant and up-to-date system files can easily be copied onto a floppy disk; in particular the file containing the user settings USER.DAT and the file containing the system settings SYSTEM.DAT. The files USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT contain respective information which is saved in the ini-files under Windows 3.x. This disk should be brought up-to-date if extensive or important changes have been made to the computer configuration or the user settings.

Once a start-up floppy disk and an emergency floppy disk have been created, they should be checked for computer viruses and write-protection should be enabled thereafter.

Using a start-up floppy disk

To boot up with the system floppy disk, it must first be placed in the floppy disk drive, the start sequence in the BIOS prioritised for the floppy disk drive, and the computer restarted. The computer then boots up in line mode.

Using a computer/user-specific floppy disk

If the computer boots up correctly (with or without a start-up floppy disk), but the computer/user-specific files are however damaged, these can be played back with the program ERD.EXE which can be found on the computer/user-specific floppy disk. The corresponding data on the hard disk will have been moved into the directory C:\WINDOWS\ERUNDO and can, if applicable, be reconstructed with the command ERD/UNDO.

Note: It is necessary to start the computer in line mode in order to use the program ERD.EXE. This can be attained, for example by booting from the start floppy disk, by selecting RESTART COMPUTER IN MS-DOS MODE when quitting Windows 95 or by pressing the F8 key when the computer is booting up when the message "Windows 95 starting up" appears and then selecting option "5. Manual entry only". The latter is only possible if the line BootKeys=1 is contained in the MSDOS.SYS file.

Additional controls:

• Has a start-up floppy disk been created for Windows 95 computers?

• Has a computer/user-specific emergency disk been created for every Windows 95 computer?