I explained the Windows 2000 Recovery Console in
tip 2037 » What can I do with the Windows 2000 Recovery Console?.
In tip 3201, I explained the Recovery Console commands.
In tip 2615, I explained the Recovery Console SET command.
You can use this functionality to recover Windows NT 4.0:
1. Install the Recovery console from a Windows 2000 CD-ROM by running \i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons.
2. Enable the SET command by applying the following registry entries:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Setup\RecoveryConsole]
"SetCommand"=dword:00000001
"SecurityLevel"=dword:00000000
3. Update your
boot floppy.
4. Create a RCSET.TXT file in the %SystemRoot% folder that contains
the SET command variables:
set AllowWildCards = TRUE
set AllowAllPaths = TRUE
set AllowRemovableMedia = TRUE
The next time you need to recover Windows NT, you can boot to the Recovery Console, type batch RCSET.TXT, to
enable the enhanced SET functionality,
and then perform whatever recovery you require, like any of the following:
- Copying hives from the %SystemRoot%\Repair folder to %SystemRoot\System32\config folder.
- Running a ConfigSafe batch from %SystemRoot%\System32\csafesos.
- Using any of the Recovery Console commands.