Create the ultimate recovery disc

The disc that will save your life is called the BartPE Rescue Disc in honour of its creator, Bart Lagerweij, and it won't cost a penny to build. It consists of a stripped down version of Windows that has limited network support and a basic point-and-click interface. You then customise this so it delivers all the functionality you need. We'll show you how to set up and test your disc so it's got Internet access and a friendly, Windows-like interface. Once done, we'll point you towards all the plug-ins you need to add the recovery tools, security software and even a working office application to save your bacon.

What you'll need

We strongly recommend you create your BartPE disc using a rewritable CD or DVD - although you can test and tweak the disc by creating an ISO file and using Virtual PC as a test bed (see over the page), your disc is an organic creation that will require updating over time.

   Because BartPE is based on Windows XP, it requires files from your Windows XP installation - it doesn't matter if you have a genuine Windows installation disc or your laptop came with a recovery disc, the files you need will be accessible inside a folder called i386.

   The exact location of this folder can be found out by clicking Start > Run, typing regedit and pressing [Enter]. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Setup and make a note of the location in the SourcePath value, which is where you'll find the i386 folder you need.

   If it points to a CD, insert your Windows disc; if it points to a location on your hard drive, browse there instead. Once you've found the i386 folder, copy it to the root of drive C, so it sits alongside the Program Files and Windows folders.

   Your Windows installation files need to have Service Pack 2 slipstreamed into them - if your PC is less than two years old, this is likely to already be the case; if not, you'll need to download SP2 (a whopping 270MB) from here, and incorporate it into your i386 folder. You can do this using the PEBuilder tool, which is what will create your BartPE disc for you.
 

Initial setup

Click here and download the self-installing version of PEBuilder. Once done, install it and run the program. Agree to the license agreement, and PEBuilder will offer to search your hard drive for the installation files - click No.

   If you need to slipstream Service Pack 2 into your installation files, choose Source > Slipstream. Select the source of your i386 folder (C:\ if you followed our advice above) and then browse to and select the SP2 file you downloaded (WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU or WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe). Click OK and the file will be slipstreamed into your i386 folder. Once done, click the ... button under Source. Select your C drive and click OK to complete the basic setup.
 

Add networking and hard-drive support

The core BartPE disc only has limited network support, so start your search for wireless drivers here. Version 2.0 of the Drivers Add-On includes support for many network adapters, including Intel's Pro wireless drivers, which are found in all Centrino laptops.

   If you find your network adapter listed, click here to download the tool, then double-click UBCD4WinDriversV20 and extract the files to your desktop. Once complete, locate the folder containing your network drivers - copy this to the pebuilder3110a\drivers\Net folder. If your hard drive is either SATA or RAID, locate its drivers in the SCSIAdapter folder, and copy them into the pebuilder3110a\drivers\SCSIAdapter folder. If you're not sure which drivers to copy across, copy them all - but remember this will slow the BartPE boot process even further.

   If your network or storage device isn't listed, or you want to access the Net through your dial-up modem, you'll need to take a trip to here to download the Hardware Plugin Finder tool. Save HPB.exe to your desktop, then run it and select your device type: Modem, Ethernet or SATA-RAID. Pick your device from the list if more than one is offered and click Build Plugin to see if it's able to build a driver for you. If successful, repeat for your other devices and then copy the MyDrivers folder that's created in the same directory as HPB.exe to your C:\pebuilder3110a\plugins folder.

Essential plug-ins

Now you've got your additional drivers sorted, it's time to expand your BartPE disc's functionality through the use of plug-ins. Before you do anything else, you need to install three key components: one to allow you to access the Net through your dial-up modem, the other to give you access to the Wireless Network Connection screen you're familiar with in XP, and the third to give you a more familiar recovery environment to work in, complete with desktop icons and Start menu.

   First, you need to obtain the plug-ins. If you've added your modem driver to your BartPE disc, download Dialup.cab from this direct link to your hard drive. If you're setting up your wireless network adapter, download the Wireless Service (wireless.cab) from this direct link.

   Finally, everyone should download the Windows XPE Plug-in from here - this gives you Internet Explorer so you can surf the Web in addition to a more Windows-like interface.

 To incorporate these plug-ins into your BartPE disc, launch PEBuilder and click Plugins. You'll see a large number of plug-ins are already here - some already enabled - but ignore them for now.

   First, verify that your modem driver is present and enabled (look for an entry that begins My Driver). Now click Add, browse to and select xpe-1.0.6, leave the default name as it is, and a list of plug-ins related to Windows XPE should appear at the top of your list. Now click Add again to add the other plug-ins in turn; ignore the warning about wireless not having an INF file - it'll work regardless.

   The XPE plug-in doesn't work properly unless you disable two of the existing plug-ins - Startup Group and Nu2Shell, so select each in turn and click Enable/Disable to change their status to Enabled status No. Click Close to return to the main PEBuilder screen. You're nearly ready to burn your first disc for testing, but first you have to perform some additional steps, so click Exit and move on to the next step.