If Windows doesn’t feel like starting
up and your files are being held hos-
tage, booting into a DOS environment
with a floppy disk or floppy emulation
won’t do you much good because
you can’t access NTFS partitions.
This floppy-less method gives you
access to all your files (provided the
problem isn’t with your drive; if it is,
you have our sympathies).
Fortunately, most of the hard
work’s been done for you by Bart
Lagerweij, whose Preinstalled
Environment (called BartPE for short)
has got everything you need to createa bootable CD complete with network
support and even a pleasant graphi-
cal interface. Even more charming is
that he’s giving away the fruits of his
labor for free. Yes, that’s “free” as in
“beer.” So let’s go shopping.
Go to http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder and
download PE Builder (now at version
3.1.3). Note: You will also need your
original Windows XP installation disc
(Home or Professional) as well as
Service Pack 2. You can download
Service Pack 2 at http://www.microsoft.com/
windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx.54 MA XIMUMPC NOVEMBER 2005
how 2 IMPROVING YOUR PC EXPERIENCE, ONE STEP AT A TIME
Put your Windows XP disc in the drive and copy the contents to a
folder on your PC, preferably close to the root directory of your C:
drive (you’ll understand why in a second). Next, create another folder
for SP2 and move the contents of the disc into that folder. Now clickStart > Run and type cmd to open a DOS box. Navigate to the folder
where you saved the SP2 installer—if you place this file near the
root directory it will be much easier to access; you can delete it later.
Type the name of the SP2 installer followed by the –s: command-
line switch, and then add the path to the Windows XP disc files you
copied earlier. Do not put a space after the “s:” For example, if your
WinXP files are located at c:\winxp, then type xpsp2.exe -s:c:\
winxp. SP2 will integrate itself into the Windows XP installer.Make a Bootable CD-ROM
1 Prep work
2 Rip your OS discs to the hard drive
Launch PE Builder. Under Source, enter the path to your Windows XP
installation files. Under Output, select a destination directory for your
finished disc image. Under ISO/CD, you have the option of saving
the image as an ISO disc image, burning the results directly to CD, or
both. You may also add any folders and files (such as utilities or data-
recovery apps) by placing them all into one directory and entering the
directory path under Custom.3 Configure PE builder
From PE Builder’s humble command center, we’re opting
to create an “image” of our bootable disc in the ISO format
rather than burn directly to disc, so we can alter the con-
tents later if necessary.A simple command-line switch
will update your Windows XP
installation files to include
Service Pack 2.The emblem of Bart Lagerweij’s Prein-
stalled Environment bootable CD grind-
house. If you’re serious about making
sophisticated bootable discs, you’ll be
spending a lot of time with PE Builder.