How to Install and Run the Recovery Console in Windows XP
This article was previously published
under Microsoft Article Q307654
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
·
Installing the Recovery Console
·
Using the Recovery Console Command Prompt
·
Deleting the Recovery Console
·
Installing Recovery Console During an
Unattended Install
The
Windows Recovery console is designed to help you recover when your
Windows-Based computer does not start properly or does not start at all. If
Safe mode and other startup options do not work, you can consider using the
Recovery Console. This method is recommended only if you are an advanced user
who can use basic commands to identify and locate problem drivers and files. In
addition, you must be an administrator to use the Recovery Console.
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You
can install the Recovery Console on your computer to make it available in case
you are unable to restart Windows. You can then select the Recovery Console
option from the list of available operating systems on startup. It is wise to
install the Recovery Console on important servers, and on the workstations of
IT personnel. This article describes how you can install the Recovery Console
to your Windows XP computer. To install the Recovery Console, you must have
administrative rights on the computer.
Although you can run the Recovery console by booting directly from the Windows
XP CD, it's much more convenient to set it up as a startup option on your boot
menu. To run directly by booting from the CD see the "Using the Recovery
Console" section later in this article.
To install the Recovery Console, perform the following steps:
·
Insert
the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive.
·
Click
Start, and then click Run.
·
In
the Open box, type d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons where d is the drive letter
for the CD-ROM drive.
·
A
Windows Setup Dialog Box appears, which describes the Recovery Console option.
The system prompts you to confirm installation. Click Yes to start the installation
procedure.
·
Restart
the computer. The next time you start your computer, you will see a "Microsoft
Windows Recovery Console" entry on the boot menu.
NOTE: Alternatively, you can use
a UNC to install the Recovery Console from a network share point.
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Using the Recovery
Console
You
can enable and disable services, format drives, read and write data on a local
drive (including drives that are formatted to use the NT File System (NTFS),
and perform many other administrative tasks. The Recovery Console is
particularly useful if you need to repair your computer by copying a file from
a disk or CD-ROM to your hard disk, or if you need to reconfigure a service
that is preventing your computer from starting properly.
If you cannot start your computer, you can run the Recovery Console from the
Microsoft Windows XP startup disks or the Windows XP CD-ROM. This article
describes how to perform this task.
After Windows XP is installed on your computer, to start the computer and use
the Recovery Console you need the Windows XP startup disks or the Windows XP
CD-ROM.
For additional information about how to create Startup disks for Windows XP
(they are not included with Windows XP), click the article number below to view
the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
310994
Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks
Note: To start the
computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, you need to configure the basic
input/output system (BIOS) of the computer to boot from your CD-ROM drive.
To run the Recovery Console from the Windows XP startup disks or the Windows XP
CD-ROM, use the following steps:
·
Insert
the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows
XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
·
Click
to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM
drive if you are prompted to do so.
·
When
the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery
Console.
·
If
you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, choose the installation that
you need to access from the Recovery Console.
·
When
you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the
administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
·
At
the command prompt, type the appropriate commands to diagnose and repair your
Windows XP installation.
For a list of
commands that are available in Recovery Console, type recovery
console commands or help at the command prompt, and then press
ENTER.
For information about a specific command, type help commandname at the command
prompt, and then press ENTER.
To exit the
Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit at the command
prompt, and then press ENTER.
When
you use the Recovery Console, you are working at a special command prompt
rather than the usual Windows command prompt. The Recovery Console has its own
command interpreter. To enter this command interpreter, you are prompted by
Recovery Console to type the Administrator password (the local Administrator,
not a domain Administrator).
When the Recovery Console starts, you have the opportunity to press F6 to
install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver, in case you need such a driver to
access the hard disk. This prompt works the same as it does during installation
of the operating system.
The Recovery Console takes a few seconds to start. When the Recovery Console
menu is displayed, a numbered list of the Windows installations on the computer
is displayed (usually only one entry-c:\Windows-exists). Press a number before
you press ENTER, even when only one entry appears. If you press ENTER without
choosing a number, the computer restarts and begins the process again.
When you see the prompt for %SystemRoot% (usually C:\Windows), you can begin
using the available commands for the Recovery Console.
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Command Actions
The
following list describes the available commands for the Recovery Console:
·
Attrib changes attributes
on one file or subdirectory.
·
Batch executes
commands that you specify in the text file, Inputfile; Outputfile holds the
output of the commands. If you omit the Outputfile parameter, output is
displayed on the screen.
·
Bootcfg is used to
manipulate the Boot.ini for boot configuration and recovery.
·
CD (Chdir) operates only
within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable
media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation
sources.
·
Chkdsk The /p switch runs Chkdsk even if the
drive is not flagged as dirty. The /r
switch locates bad sectors and recovers readable information; this switch
implies /p. Chkdsk
requires Autochk. Chkdsk automatically looks for Autochk.exe in the startup (or
boot) folder. If Chkdsk cannot find the file in the startup folder, it looks
for the Windows 2000 Setup CD-ROM. If Chkdsk cannot find the installation
CD-ROM, it prompts the user for the location of Autochk.exe.
·
Cls clears the
screen.
·
Copy copies one
file to a target location. By default, the target cannot be removable media and
you cannot use wildcards. Copying a compressed file from the Windows 2000 Setup
CD-ROM automatically decompresses the file.
·
Del (Delete) deletes one
file. Operates within the system directories of the current Windows
installation, removable media, the root directory of any hard disk partition,
or the local installation sources. You cannot use wildcards by default.
·
Dir displays a
list of all files, including hidden and system files.
·
Disable disables a
Windows system service or driver. The variable service_or_driver
is the name of the service or driver that you want to disable. When you use
this command to disable a service, it displays the service's original startup type
before changing the type to SERVICE_DISABLED. You should note the original
startup type so that you can use the enable
command to restart the service.
·
Diskpart manages
partitions on hard disk volumes. The /add
option creates a new partition; the /delete
option deletes an existing partition. The variable device is the device name
for a new partition (such as \device\harddisk0). The variable drive is the
drive letter for a partition that you are deleting (for example, D); partition
is the partition-based name for a partition that you are deleting, (for
example: \device\harddisk0\partition1) and can be used in place of the drive
variable. The variable size is the size, in megabytes, of a new partition.
·
Enable enables a
Windows system service or driver. The variable service_or_driver is the name of
the service or driver that you want to enable, and start_type is the startup
type for an enabled service. The startup type uses one of the following
formats:
SERVICE_BOOT_START
SERVICE_SYSTEM_START
SERVICE_AUTO_START
SERVICE_DEMAND_START
·
Exit quits the
Recovery Console, and then restarts the computer.
·
Expand expands a
compressed file. The variable source is the file that you want to expand; you
cannot use wildcard characters by default. The variable destination is the
directory for the new file; by default, the destination cannot be removable
media and cannot be read-only; you can use the attrib command to remove the read-only attribute from
the destination directory. The option /f:filespec
is required if the source contains more than one file; this option permits
wildcards. The /y
switch disables the overwrite confirmation prompt. The /d switch specifies that the files
should not be expanded and displays a directory of the files in the source.
·
Fixboot writes a new
boot sector on the system partition.
·
Fixmbr repairs the
boot partition's master boot code. The variable device is an optional name that
specifies the device that needs a new MBR; omit this variable when the target
is the boot device.
·
Format formats a
disk. The /q switch
performs a quick format; the /fs
switch specifies the file system.
·
Help If you do not
use the command variable to specify a command, help lists all the commands that the Recovery Console
supports.
·
Listsvc displays all
available services and drivers on the computer.
·
Logon displays
detected installations of Windows and requests the local Administrator password
for those installations. Use this command to move to another installation or
subdirectory.
·
Map displays
currently active device mappings. Include the arc option to specify the use of Advanced RISC
Computing (ARC) paths (the format for Boot.ini) instead of Windows device
paths.
·
MD (Mkdir) operates only
within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable media,
the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation
sources.
·
More/Type displays the
specified text file (such as, filename) on screen.
·
Net Use connects to a
remote share for the Windows XP Recovery Console. The following text describes
the syntax for this command:
· NET USE [devicename | *] [\\computername\sharename[\volume] [password | *]]
o [/USER:[domainname\]username]
o [/USER:[dotted domain name\]username]
o [/USER:[username@dotted domain name]
o [/SMARTCARD]
o [/SAVECRED]
o [[/DELETE] | [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]]
· NET USE {devicename | *} [password | *] /HOME
· NET USE [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]
·
Rd (Rmdir) operates only
within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable
media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation
sources.
·
Ren (Rename) operates only
within the system directories of the current Windows installation, removable
media, the root directory of any hard disk partition, or the local installation
sources. You cannot specify a new drive or path as the target.
·
Set displays and
sets the Recovery Console environment variables.
·
Systemroot sets the
current directory to %SystemRoot%.
Several
environment rules are in effect while you are working in the Recovery Console.
Type set to see the
current environment. By default, these are the rules:
·
AllowAllPaths = FALSE, which
prevents access to directories and subdirectories outside the system
installation that you selected when you entered the Recovery Console.
·
AllowRemovableMedia = FALSE, which
prevents access to removable media as a target for copied files.
·
AllowWildCards = FALSE, which
prevents wildcard support for commands such as copy and del.
·
NoCopyPrompt = FALSE, which means
that you are prompted by the Recovery Console for confirmation when overwriting
an existing file.
To delete the Recovery
Console:
·
Restart
your computer, click Start,
click My Computer, and
then double-click the hard disk on which you installed the Recovery Console.
·
On
the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
·
Click
Show hidden files and folders,
click to clear the Hide protected
operating system files check box, and then click OK.
·
At
the root folder, delete the Cmdcons
folder and the Cmldr
file.
·
At
the root folder, right-click the Boot.ini
file, and then click Properties.
·
Click
to clear the Read-only
check box, and then click OK.
·
WARNING: Modifying the
Boot.ini file incorrectly may prevent your computer from restarting. Be sure to
delete only the entry for the Recovery Console. Also, it is recommended that
you change the attribute for the Boot.ini file back to a read-only state after
you complete this procedure. Open the Boot.ini file in Microsoft Windows
Notepad, and remove the entry for the Recovery Console. It looks similar to
this:
c:\cmdcons\bootsect.dat="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console"
/cmdcons
·
Save
the file and close it.
In order to install
the Recovery Console during the unattended installation of Windows, it is
necessary to use the [GuiRunOnce] section of the unattend.txt file.
Command1="path\winnt32
/cmdcons /unattend"
For
more information about how to use the Unattend.txt file, see the Deployment
Planning Guide of the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit.
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REFERENCES
You can use
Group Policies to change the rules and expand the power that you have in the
Recovery Console. For additional information about how to do this, click the
article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
310497
How to use Group Policies to add more power to the Recovery Console