WHEN WINDOWS MISBEHAVES and nothing else works, restoring the operating system via your restore CD or hidden hard-drive partition may be your last resort So what sho\,Jld you do if you can't find that precious CD?
The first thing to do is to get in touch with your system's manufacturer and find out its policies. Usually, some option will be available. Also, several companies include software on their machines for creating a new recovery disc.
The sixth PC manufacturer I consulted, Dell, has no stated replacement policy. But the
company encourages customers to call when this need arises.
If your computer is currently in good working order, but you worry that you don't have a recovery tool and that someday' you'll desperately need one, create your own with a good backup program. The resulting recovery disc is arguably better than a factory¬issued backup tool, because it
will restore a version of Windows that includes all of your personalized settings.
You'll need a backup program with good disaster-recovery capabilities. Image-based backup programs such as Symantec's Norton Ghost (
System Restore - PC Backup Software | Norton Ghost) and Acronis's True Image (
www.pcworld.in/india/downloads/Utilities/ Backup/1494/1497) do nicely. I'm partial to Genie Backup Manager (www. pcworld. i n/i nd ia/d own loads/Uti lities/Backu p/1494/1497), wh i ch doesn't use images but reliably restores Windows.
You may own an image backup app already; such programs come with Vista's Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions, with Nero Burning, and with some external hard drives.
The trick is to make a single image or disaster-recovery backup of your drive and then put it aside. You should also create regular daily backups with the same program or another one, but you should keep your recovery backup
••. separate from these, in a place where it won't be overwritten.
If Windows ever becomes too broken to fix, first restore it from your recovery backup, and then restore your newer data
from a recent data backup. -Lincoln Spector