Use the following steps to get to the Recovery Console from the boot CD:
Insert the DVD and boot from it. You'll get a black and white screen:
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Press any key to boot from CD....
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If this doesn't appear, it may be the DVD is not a Windows bootable CD. Assuming you get this message, press a key (spacebar or anything else). If you don't press any key within about 5 seconds, it will boot from the hard disk.
Continuing to boot from the CD you'll see a blue screen.
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Windows Setup
====================
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The bottom white line will show the various drivers being loaded as setup starts up. This takes 2-3 minutes. When complete the first options screen appears.
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Windows Setup
====================
Welcome to Setup.
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft(R)
Windows(R) XP to run on your computer.
* To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER.
* To repair a Windows XP installation using
Recovery Console, press R.
* To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
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ENTER=Continue R=Repair F3=Quit |
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To start the Recovery Console, press R. This drops you a black and White screen. If you have more than one installation, the different installs will appear.
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Microsoft Windows XP(TM) Recovery Console
The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality/
Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.
1: C:\WINDOWS
2: D:\WINDOWS
Which Windows installation would you like to log onto
(To cancel press ENTER)? _
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Type 1, and press Enter to select the first installation (most users will only have one installation). You will then be asked for the Administrator Password.
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Which Windows installation would you like to log onto
(To cancel press ENTER)? 1
Type the Administrator Password: _
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Enter the password and press Enter. If you never set one, it will be blank, so just press Enter. If accepted, you'll be dropped to a prompt, where you can view and access files using standard DOS commands.
Type help, then Enter to see a list of valid commands. The command shell lets you fix a number of issues, although there is no nice GUI to walk you through it.
From this point, we'll assume you know to press Enter after each command. All commands, directories and filenames are not case sensitive. Don't forget to include the spaces exactly as shown. Options include:
Validate and Fix the File System
This runs the check disk program to detect and attempt to repair problems on one partition. For example, to repair the C: drive:
- At the prompt type chkdsk c: /r
Repair the Boot Process
Typically this is used if Windows doesn't start at all and you can't get to the safe mode menu. You might also replace the Master Boot Record (MBR) and/or the boot sector if you suspect a virus infection.
New MBR - Insert a new generic MBR without changing the partition table.
- At the prompt, type: fixmbr
New Boot Sector - Insert a new Windows compatible boot sector.
- At the prompt, type: fixboot
- It will confirm the target partition is C (for at least 99.99% of installations). Type Y
Fix a Damaged or Missing File
If a file is damaged, corrupted or missing, you can often copy the file from the CD. Ideally the CD should be the SAME service pack version as what you have already installed (and updated). Using mixed versions can cause other problems and instabilities.
For example, if your CD appears as drive E, and you want to replace ntldr and ntdetect.com (two critical files for the start of Windows):
- At the prompt, type copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
- It will ask if you want to overwrite, so type Y
- At the prompt, type copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
- It will ask if you want to overwrite, so type Y
Most files on the CD are stored in a compressed format. For example, the file HAL.DLL (which is stored in the c:\Windows\System32 directory) was corrupted and needs to be replaced. You will find the file on the CD under \i386\HAL.DL_ instead of the name you expect. The last letter has been changed to an underscore to signify the file is compressed. Take the following steps to get and expand this file:
- At the prompt, type expand e:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32
- It will ask if you want to overwrite, so type Y
Backup Registry and Load the Registry from Original Installation
If you suspect the registry is damaged, this is a slick way to get running again when other options have failed. Once Windows is running using this trick, you can restore a different restore point from within Windows. First we'll save the current registry so you could always return things the way the were.
- Change the directory to Windows by typing cd :\windows
- Create a new directory by typing mkdir regtmp
- Change to the directory where the registry resides by typing cd system32\config
- Copy these files using the commands in bold:
- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG>copy default c:\windows\regtmp\default.bak
- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG>copy sam c:\windows\regtmp\sam.bak
- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG>copy security c:\windows\regtmp\security.bak
- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG>copy software c:\windows\regtmp\software.bak
- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG>copy system c:\windows\regtmp\system.bak
- Now we'll reset the registry used when XP was first installed. Copy the following files in bold:
- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG>copy c:\windows\repair\default default
- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG>copy c:\windows\repair\sam sam
- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG>copy c:\windows\repair\security security
- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG>copy c:\windows\repair\software software
- C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG>copy c:\windows\repair\system system
Now you can exit to reboot and work off the original registry. If the system still fails to run, then there is other more serious problems to deal with.
Manually Restore Registry via a Restore Point
In this technique, you will restore a registry (restore point) from a previously saved restore point.
- At the prompt, type cd \"system volume information"\_resto~1
The prompt should change to c:\SYSTEM VOLUME INFORMATION\_RESTO~1>
- Type dir to see a list of the restore points.
You will see a number of directories that start with RP followed by a number. For example RP123 indicates the 123rd restore point made since first installed. Only the last 12 or so restore points are retained.
The date of the directory indicates when the restore point was saved. You'll want to pick a date prior to the problem event, such as before an installation that you suspect caused the problem. You do not want to pick the newest restore point, since that has saved the very last problematic registry.
- With the restore point identified, you need to change to that directory, and the snapshot directory under it. Let's assume you decided on SP110, so you would type:
cd sp110\snapshot
- The prompt gets rather long, but it would look like:
c:\SYSTEM VOLUME INFORMATION\_RESTO~1\SP110\SNAPSHOT>
- Now you'll copy the five files that comprise the registry:
copy _registry_user_.default c:\windows\system32\config\default
copy _registry_machine_sam c:\windows\system32\config\Sam
copy _registry_machine_security c:\windows\system32\config\Security
copy _registry_machine_software c:\windows\system32\config\Software
copy _registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\System
- Now you can exit to reboot and run Windows using this registry restoration. Keep in mind that any installation or updates made after the date of the restore point will be lost (which might be a good thing)!
To Exit Recovery Console and Reboot
- At the prompt, type Exit
- The system will reboot.
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