anand, very simply, a boot disk passes a little bit of code to BIOS so that BIOS gives control over to the OS that is on the boot disk...it may be DOS, Recovery Console [very limited OS unless tweaked], Linux, even XP as caperjack pointed out. It does not have to be a disk, or floppies, it can be an external hd or a thumb drive..
If you would like one now is certainly the time to make it when your sys is working fine. Here is a canned speech I gave someone else...
Because you may not be in possession of an Xp install CD, here's a boot disc with a recovery console on it; the console runs from the cd so you don't need an xp cd or any files from your C drive. I know it works. All you need is an image burner like Nero 6, CD Writer...
Tips... unzip the file to get the iso and then BURN THE IMAGE. Do not use Data CD or any other mode cos all you will get is a copy of the iso [which you have already...and your new CD will not be bootable]; if you look at the files on your new cd and see .iso mentioned anywhere, start over. If you use Nero 6 then the defaults for image burning are fine, skip the silly advice that you may find on the web. Burn it to a CD-RW if you wish; there is no need to close/finalise the CD whether it is a RW or R, cos later you may wish to add other good files. Multisession works fine. If you use a CD-R then hold the burn speed lowish, say 4x.
May i leave you to work out what to do with recovery console? Ask if you really need help...
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/Tool...xp_rec_con.zip
I suggest you try it with a RW for fun.... you will notice when you use it [practice, test] that it loads up just like windows setup - well, that is what recovery console is, a stripped version of xp.
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