Reader Challenge

When users complain that their computer won't start, the typical situation is that the computer is perfectly willing to power up, but Windows won't boot. Several symptoms, such as error messages, blue screens, and hangs that last forever, can signal the disaster. As a systems administrator, one tool you probably reach for in this situation is the Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) for the affected computer. How much do you know about the ERD? The tool is easier to use if you understand it. This month's challenge focuses on the ERDs for Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0. (Answers appear on page 25.)

Questions

1. Which of the following utilities is available for creating an ERD on both Win2K and NT 4.0?
1. Rdisk
2. NT Backup
3. Both A and B
4. Neither A nor B



2. In NT 4.0, inserting the ERD and restarting the computer produces which of the following actions?
1. Boots the OS into the Installation and Repair menu
2. Results in the error message Non-system disk or disk error
3. Results in the error message The Emergency Repair Disk is not startable
4. None of the above



3. The ERD gets its files from \%systemroot%\repair. Which of the following statements about the Repair folder is true?
1. In Win2K and NT 4.0, the Repair folder contains the original registry hives, and you can't update the folder. Using these files always returns your OS to its original installation state.
2. In Win2K and NT 4.0, you can use NT Backup's Update Repair Files option to update the Repair folder's contents to the current registry hives.
3. NT 4.0 can update Repair folder files to include the current hive files; Win2K creates an additional subfolder under the Repair folder for current hive files.
4. Win2K can update Repair folder files to include the current hive files; NT 4.0 creates an additional subfolder under the Repair folder for current hive files.



4. Which of the following statements about the ERD is true?
1. For Win2K and NT 4.0, you must have the original Windows CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive to use the ERD.
2. For Win2K and NT 4.0, the ERD contains a file with path statements that point to the hive files on the hard disk that contains \%systemroot%.
3. In Win2K, only the system hive is on the ERD; in NT 4.0, both the system and SAM hives are on the ERD.
4. In Win2K and NT 4.0, you can use the ERD you created on one computer with any computer running the same version of Windows (e.g., Professional, Server, Workstation).

Answers to This Month's Reader Challenge
You can find this month's Reader Challenge on page 20.
The correct answers to the questions follow:

1. D
2. C
3. C
4. B (The filename is setup.log.)

End of Article