How to create a repair CD for Windows 7

Almost everyone has been in this situation: you turn on your computer, and instead of the desktop, Windows greets you with a blue screen. It's good to be prepared.

[By Gerrit Grunwald]

Windows 7 offers the option of creating an emergency CD. All we need is a blank CD or DVD and about 2 minutes of time.

Alternative data recovery method if you don't have an emergency CD: You can download a Windows 7 recovery CD.

Windows 7 repair CD: And this is how it's done.

Insert a blank disc and launch the Repair CD Wizard. To do this, click Start > All Programs > Maintenance > Create a System Repair Disc.

Confirm the message shown above with OK. Windows will do the rest automatically.

The emergency CD is equipped with the Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) operating system. This makes it possible, among other things, to display command line commands graphically. In practice, this would look like this:

A brief overview of the four most important features

The system startup repair

Windows often fails to boot because necessary drivers or system files have been overwritten by other programs. With the help of system startup repair, deleted, damaged or overwritten startup files or drivers that Windows needs to boot are automatically repaired.

System recovery

Access the system restore.

System image recovery

The system image is (as the name suggests) a 1:1 copy of the hard disk (drive C by default). If a copy is available on an external hard disk or DVD, it can be restored using the system image restore function.

Windows memory diagnostics

As defective RAM can also contribute to system crashes and errors, Windows offers internal troubleshooting for RAM.

All in all, the Rescue CD is a powerful tool when nothing else works. It's a must-have for every CD collection.