Can any kind person explain the difference between a

Boot disk and Restore disk?

The reason I am asking is my Hard disk appears to be on its last legs and when it finally goes I will have to buy and install a new one.

I have a Restore CD (actually 2 that came with my computer) and I have read a little about Boot disks.

so .... When I start my computer with the new Hard disk what do I use? (as it will be blank)

a Boot disk?
or a Restore disk?
or both?


many thanks

A boot disk is a disk that your computer can use to boot. A restore disk is a disk that contains some sort of restore information.

A boot disk may contain restore information and a recovery disk may be bootable.

In your case, you should just boot from the restore CD and follow the pretty on-screen instructions.