Creating a startup disk?

Help - I feel like such a moron asking this but I'm getting ready to install a new graphics card on my Mom's computer and am not familiar with XP. I read a post a few weeks ago about creating the startup disk but, for the life of me, I can't find my notes on it. This person used a program and then copied a few additional files to the disk. It was also clear that this needed to be updated whenever changes were made to the computer. Any idea what this might have been?

I know I can create a restore point so that, if something goes wrong, I can back out of it but not sure of the boot issue. (I used that when I removed Norton AV and it removed her internet connection as well!) The guide that came with the computer talks about creating System Recovering Discs and that being a one time thing (don't know if she did this). There is also information on creating a Recovery Tools CD.

Sorry for such a silly question but I appreciate any help given.

Turn off computer, take out old card, put in new one. Start computer and it might recognize the card and install the drivers. Otherwise, cancel out of that install stuff. Use the CD that came with new graphics card to install drivers. Or download the latest drivers for it (download before everything else) and install those.