from time to time in the past i have found the various windows that i have had have at some point or other said to me cannot find boot.ini or msconfig has become corrupted and prevented me from getting to windows to do system restore. what are the main files that windows needs to boot from and where in windows can i find these? so if my registry or win.ini file goes corrupt i could just replace it with a backup copy. The simplest solutions are the best and they are often save you money

Well, you need a backup/restore plan. MS suggest that you use ntbackup with system state. But the restore is a clean install of xp then apply the restore. Others choose things like Bart's/UBCD4WIN or images such as G4U, Acronis, Ghost. Could even use Vista to help repair the system as it is a live cd. If you want to get into linux you could get a knoppix or systemrescuecd. Both have a steep learning curve. Many other plans work for people. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

You can avoid the errors you describe by defragging regularly and running chkdsk /r occasionally. Example of Oxymoron: Person who is pro life and anti sex education. Education is key to prevention. Prevent conception you prevent abortion. Abstinence training clearly isn't working.

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... How to use System files to create a boot disk to guard against being unable to start Windows XP

cheerz chuck 2 the only snag is i dont have a floppy drive installed could i use the process described in the MS article for a CD The simplest solutions are the best and they are often save you money