It should look like the icon depicted on the right. Now that you have the appropriate Microsoft Windows XP boot disk creator file downloaded, you need to run it. If you have Windows XP Professional, click To download Microsoft’s boot disk creator. It should say on that sticker whether your computer is loaded with Windows XP Home or Professional. Every computer that came with Windows XP preinstalled is required to have one. If you are unsure which version of Windows XP you have installed on your PC, look on the sides or back of your computer’s case for the Windows XP sticker. Note: Selecting the proper version of Windows XP is important. Be sure to save the boot disk creator file in an easy to find location (like your desktop) so you can run it without having to search for it. When you click on the link, a download box will appear.

Click on the appropriate link below for your Windows XP Home or Professional operating system. You can download a free boot disk creation utility available from the Microsoft website. If you don’t have a bootable Windows XP CD, or just can’t find it, don’t worry. Every BIOS is different, so if you fall into this category, we recommend you contact a service center to ask about gaining access to your computer’s BIOS and changing the boot device priority. If you insert your bootable Windows XP CD and restart your PC and it still boots from your hard drive, you may need to edit your BIOS to set the CD drive as the first boot device.

Note: Some computers are not set to boot from their CD drives first. That means you can insert your bootable Windows XP CD into your CD Drive and the computer will ask you if you wish to boot from the bootable Windows CD rather than your troubled hard drive. This is important because you can boot from any Windows XP original OEM CD. This means that if you have purchased your computer over the past few years, you probably have a bootable Windows XP CD.

Microsoft requires that all OEM computers with Windows XP preinstalled now be shipped with a bootable Windows XP CD rather than a comprehensive recovery CD. You can enter command line instructions and repair problems without accessing the Windows graphical interface.

The recovery console is a diagnostic interface that looks a lot like DOS. One of the first steps in solving advanced Windows XP problem is being able to boot into the recovery console from your Windows XP CD or boot disks. it will contain drivers and account information that may be necessary to recover the computer correctly in the even of a partial drive (or system) failure. Windows provides methods of creating an emergency boot disks that are specific to the configuration of an individual computer.

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