In the past, if you had a problem with Windows that prevented Windows from booting, you were limited to either downloading a third party system recovery disk like the “Ultimate Boot CD“, or booting from the Windows disc and working from the awkward command line to fix problems. Windows 7 includes a utility to create a bootable disk to fix problems from a familiar graphical interface. This tool could be a lifesaver if you perform such tasks as dual booting into Linux. A common problem that occurs when doing that is that if you change your mind and decide to delete the Linux boot loader (normally grub), you end up with no way to boot into Windows.
In the old days, fdisk /mbr from the DOS command line fixed the problem, and later booting to the command line and using fixboot or fixmbr repairs the master boot partition. But these are all geeky ways to do things that may be over the top of a normal computer user’s head. The system repair disk tries to make this a more automatic process and remove the need to learn new commands in the command line.
From the Backup and Restore panel in the Windows Control panel, select the “Create a System Repair Disc” option from the list of tasks on the left. Insert a CD or DVD and create the disk. Then, when you’re in a pinch, insert that disk and boot from it and you’ll have a list of System Recovery Options. You can do a start-up repair, which will automatically fix most problems with the Windows boot loader. You’re also given an option to use system restore to restore your system to its state at an earlier time. This is handy if you install a driver or some software which makes Windows stop working. You simply tell System Restore to go back to a point in the past when Windows was working and you’re back in business.
The next option is System Image Recovery, which is a really neat addition. It works in a way very similar to Norton Ghost, although not as simply. If you’re able to get Windows backup to work correctly, then you can use it to create a System Image, effectively “creating a Ghost your PC”. You can then use the System Image Recovery to essentially “Ghost” your system to the state it was in a backup. It even lets you chose to format your hard drive and blast out your original partition layouts. In the aforementioned example of Linux, what often happens when a user decides to try Linux is they find a way to shrink the Windows Partition and put Linux partitions in the free space. So then to get rid of Linux after it wears out its welcome you would typically not have a defined uninstall routine to follow. So normally, you would just delete the Linux partitions and expand the Windows partition to use all of the hard drive again. Then you’d have to fix the boot loader (the Start-up repair utility mentioned earlier would do so). But if you had created a system image before installing Linux, you could just use the System Image Recovery to go back to the state the computer was in before you installed Linux. Of course, as with Ghost, you’d lose all work done since the image was created.
It should also be noted that Windows backup is pretty good and automatic if you can get it working and if you have two PCs running Windows 7 Ultimate, you can in theory backup to a network location. For instance, if you have a Notebook with a small hard drive you could backup the entire hard drive to a hard drive on your desktop PC. In reality, you run into a bunch of issues and it is really hard to get it to work. The first problem you run into is that Windows users still largely don’t password protect their user accounts. You have permissions issues because backing up over the network means allowing Backup to log in as a local user on the networked computer where the backup is being saved. I won’t get into details, but you have to create accounts on each computer among other things and the backup still probably won’t finish. This is one case where 3rd party commercial apps generally win out over free or built in. I’ve tried all the free utilities for backing up to a network drive and none of them really were satisfactory.
But back to the point. The next utility you get is the Windows Memory Diagnostic, which is also available by typing “Memory” into the search bar on the start menu. In either case, a memory scan will be scheduled for boot-up, and when you restart the computer it will scan your memory for errors and then give you a report when you are logged into Windows. This is a very useful tool. If your computer starts misbehaving and crashing, or applications crash randomly, there could be a virus on your system, or your memory could be defective or have gone bad (or your CPU could be damaged by the way). Whenever these random things happen, I usually scan memory, especially if the problems start occurring after you install or upgrade memory. Before Vista, there was no utility built into Windows to test memory, so you normally had to find some boot disk with one on it, or find a copy of the standard memtest86 to test your memory. Now it’s a part of Windows.
The last option, the command prompt, is not as exciting, but is useful if you’re an advanced user. If you’re and advanced user or have another computer and are able to find instructions to find a fix for a non-working Windows install that work from the command line, then you can get to those options here.
Of course, if you have used Windows backup before creating the disk, it will default to restoring your backup when you boot from it, but cancelling the restore process returns you to the System Recovery Options. All of this is more functionality that has been added into Windows rather quietly, but can prove to save your day in a pinch.
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