how do i create a ASR without a floppy drive?
is it possible to create an ASR without a floppy drive, can I make the computer use a usb pen drive instead?as you all know computers no longer come with floppy drives.any help is appreciated.
November 24th, 2009 7:45am

I too was wondering this. It seems that Microsoft ought to concentrate a bit more on this than creating computers without floppy drives.I have one but don't use floppys for anything. I decided to make an ASR and found I needed one. As a computer 'geek' for years and now becoming a professional one, you think I would have done this before. I usually have my stuff saved and just re-install the operating system, then re-download stuff.Since I started back to school I have been doing alot new stuff to my computer. Trial and error and I usually end up re-insalling. Well I got tired of that real quick and decided on the ASR feature of XP Pro.Of course, my newer computer cannot read or format a 1.44MB floppy or any floppy. I don't know why it even has the drive in it!! So I have been researching a way to create a restorable backup without downloading or buying a bunch of stuff I will only use a couple of times. Like USB or a flash drive...Here's what I've found out...Run the ASR feature 1st part and save it on a partition, external hard drive or where ever you want it. When the second part tells you to put the floppy in, just cancel it. Ignore the warnings, the only files it will be saving is the asr.sif and the asrpnp.sif, which only serve to tell the backup which partition to reformat so it can download your backed up files.Well, I can do that!! Just put in the installation CD and boot from the disk, just like you would do a fresh install, select the partition where you want to install it, (usually the one that's messed up) and quick format it. Be careful not to select the partition where you have your backup stored. If you need details, I can help you to create this.When it is finished installing the OS, act as though you are doing a backup again, only this time choose RESTORE, select the drive with your backup and tell it to restore to the drive you just installed. (Tell me if you need help) THIS ONLY WORKS WITH IDENTICAL OPERATING SYSTEMS, i.e. XP Pro to XP Pro; Home to Home; etc. Choose the options to overwrite everything, and to restore to original file paths, do not append.Hopes this helps someone....Geek Girl
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February 6th, 2010 6:14am

Hi Geek Girl, interested in what you are saying as I am struggling with the same issue. I have just acquired a refurbished PC from a reseller with XP Professional installed & no installation CD's so can't follow your last suggestion. So are u saying that if I ...a) run the first part of ASR and save to external device [i have done] then..?b) what do I then do with the asr.sif and astpnp.sif files..? save separately to a cd... how does this work in a recovery situation or did u not go that far?Any further comment would be appreciated.Thanks
February 20th, 2010 8:15pm

Hi Treetop, GeekG and Runningman, Glad you are interested in this issue as I have a floppyless XP Pro machine I would like to use ASR with. GG -- that is a smart move. Allthough it defeats some of the time saving advantage of using ASR, it is still much quicker than what I am doing currently. Heres what I'm doing to get a clean system: 1) Install XP Pro. (40 mins) 2) Install SP2 (30 mins) because SP3 won't install without it. 3) Install SP3 (30mins) 4) Windows update - total of 65 updates (30 mins) 5) Install drivers (30 mins) I understand that programs are not included in the ASR file and most drivers install as programs so these I will probably have to reinstall. I plan to try GGs reinstal/restore method and will post the results. So far as I can tell, there is no way to use a virtual floppy flash drive. Even the USB floppy drives are not likely to work. The below quote is from a 2/21/05 tech republic article "10 things you should know about ASR". "Don't depend on USB floppy drives...a floppy drive is required for an Automatic System Recovery. I've known some people who keep a USB-floppy drive on hand in case of just such an emergency. However, ASR runs as a part of the Windows Setup process. During this process, Windows has a limited driver set and in most casees it won't recognize a USB floppy drive."http://tiny.cc/ujdHI
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March 2nd, 2010 7:54pm

Did anyone try the solution from Geek Girl 777? Did it work? I have the same problem can't do an ASR Backup & Restore without a Floppy drive.Someone had an answer to create the Floppy backup but it is useless if you don't have the floppy to do the restore. As far as I could research there is no solution for restoring without the floppy.It appears that microsft does not have a solution or they are not concerned that this product is useless for most new computers. So much for customer service.
October 7th, 2010 1:38pm

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