A nice feature in Windows Vista’s installation
CD-ROM is the addition of many drivers for
Serial ATA (SATA) controllers. These drivers
can be very useful when you want to
repair a Windows 2003, Windows
XP, or Windows 2000 installation
that exists on a SATA
disk. For example, imagine
that such an installation
stops working and you can’t
boot. To solve this problem,
you’d typically boot from an
emergency CD-ROM, DVD,
or flash disk containing a
program such as ERD Commander or Bart’s
Preinstalled Environment (BartPE—www.nu2.nu/pebuilder), then press F6 to provide
the necessary SATA driver in order to continue.
However, finding and loading the right
driver can be time-consuming, especially
on notebook computers that don’t have a
floppy disk drive installed.
If you use Vista’s installation CD-ROM to
boot, there’s a good chance that you won’t
need an additional SATA driver. Vista automatically
detects and installs the right one.
You can then use Vista’s Windows Recovery
Environment (Windows RE) to open a Command
Prompt window and take the necessary
steps to repair the installation problem.
This technique works only when the repair
procedure doesn’t need direct contact
with the OS (e.g., doesn’t need to read the
registry). Examples of when this technique
works effectively is when the repair procedure
involves running chkdsk.exe, replacing
corrupted DLLs, or fixing registry hives.
—Apostolos Fotakelis, systems administrator,
NATO, and freelance IT consultant