Suppose that you turn on your computer and Windows doesn’t start or it has a big warnings screen, error messages or even virus warnings regarding some malicious attempts to modify registry. It’s better to always have a backup solution to the Operating System itself with personal settings, programs and updates installed for emergency situations. This save your time.

Previously you have learned how to Create a Windows XP Recovery Disk using the Windows Automated System Recovery backup facility which is built-in Windows XP Professional. Now we will learn how to use the Restore Disk using ASR method in case of a Windows system failure.

When Windows is failing or it’s running very slow you can use the Restore Disk created with ASR method. But first you must boot from your Windows XP Professional installation CD. Put the CD in his drive and choose to boot from CD just like to a normal installation of Windows. When the blue screen appears the first thing you’ll see is the message: “Press F2 to run Automated System Recovery (ASR) …”. Press F2. But be ready to act quickly to not loose the screen and press the F2 button at the right time. If it happens to loose the screen you just reboot again from CD and repeat the procedure. By pressing F2 a new screen it prompts you to insert the ASR floppy disk. It is just the disk you created previously. A message it is showing “Preparing for Automated System Recovery, press ESC to cancel…”, you can cancel the recovery if you press Esc.

The process continue and another blue screen appears: “Please wait while Setup formats the partition”. It is formatting the C:\ drive. Then it looks just like a normal Windows system installation: files from the CD will copied to the disk. Then it reboots and it is showing you the screen with Windows features. It’s good, don’t worry, the recovery is on its way and a new window will appear which is Automated System Recovery Wizard welcome screen. You must click on Next in 90 seconds when a new window will let you choose the location of the backup image file which you created at the Create a Windows XP Recovery Disk. Click on Browse and choose your file which it has the “*.bkf” extension. Another screen of completion of the ASR wizard appears, you can still change the disk image if you have many. Click on Finish.

A Restore Progress window it shows that your system is restore and the completion time. After all it’s done just reboot your computer and enjoy the Windows XP operating system just like when you created the Restore Boot Disk and the Backup file using ASR method.