ASR is the last resort for system recovery in your overall system recovery plan. Use ASR after you have tried all your other recovery techniques, including a Safe Mode boot and Last Known Good.
When you invoke the ASR Wizard in NTBackup, it backs up the system state, system services, and all the disks that are associated with operating system components. ASR then creates a floppy that contains information about the backup, the disk configurations (including basic and dynamic volumes), and how it will perform a restore.
To perform an Automated System Recovery restore, you press F2 when the text-mode portion of setup prompts you. ASR then reads the floppy and restores all the disk signatures, volumes, and partitions on the disks that you need to start the computer. ASR will try to restore all the disk configurations, but may not be able to.
ASR installs a simple Windows installation and automatically starts a restore using the backup created by the ASR Wizard.
NOTE: See How do I add additional device drivers and files during Windows XP automated System Recovery?
As of this writing the following table lists whether ASR is supported with the version of Windows XP that was installed at the time of backup and at the time of restore.
Version of Version of Windows Windows Supported or at Backup at Restore NOT Supported ------------------------------------------------------------------ Windows XP Windows XP Supported Windows XP Windows XP NOT Supported Service Pack 1a Windows XP Windows XP Supported Service Pack 1 Windows XP Windows XP Supported Service Pack 1 Service Pack 1a Windows XP Windows XP NOT Supported Service Pack 1a Windows XP Windows XP Supported Service Pack 1a Service Pack 1aNOTE: The Japanese and Spanish versions of Windows XP are NOT supported.