XP bootable CD questions

[heymike]

Hey all, I'm trying to help a friend out because her XP isn't starting up correctly (her computer just restarts itself over and over after the Windows XP screen appears, desktop never gets a chance to load).

I've got a few pretty simple questions about making a bootable CD that I'm hoping someone can help me out with (she doesn't have a floppy drive):

1. She has XP Home edition, but no software on a cd. I've gotten my hands on a copy of XP Pro (for the purpose of making the bootable CD). Will there be a problem with the difference in editions when the cd is made?

2. I'm using Windows 2000... so will there be any problem with me creating the boot cd on my computer instead of on a system running XP?

3. When the boot cd is in use, will I be able to use other programs on her computer? The goal is to burn cd backups of her files and then do a clean install of XP (unless someone has a better suggestion for fixing the boot problem? Norton didn't find any viruses)

4. Is it totally necessary to slipstream the boot cd with a service pack? I just want to bypass the booting problem, so I don't know why it's so necessary to do the slipstream thing.

If anyone can think of an easier way for me to get around the boot problem, I'm all ears. I'm just assuming that a bootable CD will be necessary because I'm not very technically savvy about troubleshooting things like this.

Thanks in advance!!

Michael

[CoffeeFiend]

What type of bootcd are you making? WinPE? Normal Win XP? Win98 Boot Floppy onto CD? ... It's not really clear. Without that, some questions don't totally make sense to me (like #1) , and some questions just can't be answered (like #3). As for Q #2 - it's not a problem.

[heymike]

I'm trying to make a regular Windows XP boot cd - thanks for replying! Looking forward to getting more info on this since I don't know much about XP or the technical issues involved in what I'm doing.

[CoffeeFiend]

A normal Win XP BootCD is not very useful for recovering stuff, it's meant to reinstall windows. You'd be better off trying something else:

-WinPE will let you recover files easily (probably your best bet here, or BartPE...)

-You could put her HD in another computer to access her files (easy but sometimes not practical)

-You could access it from say, a bootable linux distro like knoppix too...

It's possible from dos too (3rd party apps req'd if on ntfs) but it's a rather slow process...

Unless you meant to reinstall windows on top of itself, in which case you could loose some stuff... And it's not guaranteed to work either.

[heymike]

Thanks crahak -

I think the files on her computer are safe, they're just not accessible because XP can't start itself properly... I thought the boot cd would allow me to circumvent that? Hmm, I guess not.

I tried finding a download of BartPE but the link at http://nu2.nu/pebuilder/ is dead. Any idea where I can get the download?

Thanks~

(She's got a laptop, so removing the HD isn't an option - at least not one that I'd be willing to attempt)

[<SparTacuS>]

Bart's site workin' fine at moment. Try this for a direct link

Bart'sPE

[heymike]

Thanks Spartacus! I just downloaded it.

Nice name, btw... one of my fantasy football teams is called Spartacus. Badaaaassssss.