Win xp pro rescue disk

One way to make a rescue disk is with a professional anti virus, such as Norton 360 or Panda Internet Security.
You have to install the anti virus first, then create the disk.

I tried using Bart's PE Builder but only got error message on attempting to restore my OS.

If you want to restore the operating system without loosing the files, you do a repair install of Windows XP, using an XP disk.
Look in Tom's XP forum, fourth post from the top for the directions.

The rescue disk can be used if the computer gets a virus attack, and nothing else will work. The Panda system provides a 2 GB online backup for your files.