Get the most out of Win2K Pro's new recovery tool
Sometimes, your system fails to boot and displays a blue screen of gibberish or a message that says the system can't start because a file is missing or corrupt. Your first attempt to fix the problem is a reboot, but sometimes that method doesn't work. In such a situation, the Recovery Console (RC), a new tool in Windows 2000 Professional, might revive your system. (For more information about the RC, see Sean Daily, "Mastering the Recovery Console," page 68.)
RC Setup
To start the RC, run it from the Win2K Pro Setup CD-ROM (if your system supports booting from the CD-ROM) or the Win2K Pro Setup disks. You can also install the RC as a boot option that you can select on system start. Insert the CD-ROM, go to Start, Run, and enter the command line
<x>:\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons
where x is your CD-ROM's drive letter. The command brings up a Win2K Setup dialog box, which asks you whether you want to install the RC; click Yes. You'll need about 7MB of hard disk space for the RC. When Setup completes, the system will prompt you to reboot, after which the RC will appear as a new boot option.
To run the RC from the Win2K Pro Setup disks or CD-ROM, you need to boot your system from the Setup disks or CD-ROM. The text-mode portion of Win2K Pro Setup will start, and Setup will give you the option either to install Win2K Pro (press Enter) or to repair your existing Win2K Pro installation (press R). Select the option to repair your installation. Next, Setup gives you the option to attempt the repair using either the RC (press C) or the emergency disk (press R again).
If your system isn't bootable, I recommend that you press R to use the emergency disk recovery method, even if you don't have an emergency disk. This option automatically verifies that all crucial system files exist undamaged. I used this option to recover my Win2K system after I rendered it unbootable by installing Windows NT 4.0. If the emergency disk method doesn't work, you'll need to restart the system, then start the RC.
Using the RC
Whether you launch the RC from the CD-ROM, from Setup disks, or from a boot option, you'll need to log on after you start the console. A dual-boot system will ask you which installation you want to log on to (e.g., C:\winnt, D:\winnt), and you'll need to enter the administrative password for the installation that you select. Then, a command prompt appears. Type help for a list of commands that the RC supports. Most commands are familiar to Win2K Pro or DOS command-prompt users, but you can get information about a particular command by typing
help <command>
For example, here's the information you get about the attrib command:
C:\WINNT>help attrib
Displays or changes file attributes.
ATTRIB [+R | -R] [+S | -S ] [+H | -H] [+C | -C] filename
+ Sets an attribute.
- Clears an attribute.
R Read-only file attribute.
S System file attribute.
H Hidden file attribute.
C Compressed file attribute.
This display is almost the same as the display you get if you type
help attrib
at a Win2K Pro command prompt. However, the RC display lacks the option to set or reset the archive attribute and instead adds an option to set or reset the compression attribute. The RC display also lacks the /S and /D options to change attributes on subdirectories and folders. Most recovery prompt commands offer a subset of the capabilities that you get when you use the same command in a Win2K command prompt. Several commands are unique to the RC command prompt.
Batch. The Batch command executes a batch file. Batch accepts two arguments—the name of the batch file to run and, optionally, a file that the system can send output to.
Disable. The Disable command lets you prevent services or drivers from starting during a boot. You can use this command if a service or driver crashes during boot. Disable takes one argument—the name of the service that you want to disable (to find service names, use Listsvc). Before this command marks the service as disabled, it prints the startup category. For example, if you type
disable cdrom