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Windows 2000 Recovery: Part 5 – The Recovery Console 

In his final look at how to recover from a sick Windows 2000 system, Dave Cook points out some of the Recovery Console’s finest features.

In knowledgeable hands, the Recovery Console can be a powerful tool. We explained in part four how it can be launched: either from the Windows 2000 boot menu, from the Windows 2000 setup floppies, or it can be run direct from the Windows 2000 CD (if your computer supports bootable CDs).

Depending on the method used, you may see a Windows 2000 Welcome To Setup screen. If so, at the Windows Repair Option screen select C to launch the Recovery Console. Note that hitting the F6 key around this time gives you the opportunity to install any additional third-party RAID or SCSI drivers.

At the next screen you’ll see a menu of Windows 2000 installations the console found on the disk. Select the number of the drive that points to the system to be logged onto and hit Enter. The console will prompt you for the administrator password for that machine. Typing the administrator password completes the loading of the console. 

In the unlikely event that you’re working on a domain controller, you’ll need to use the administrator password supplied when the machine was promoted from a server, and not the password for the Domain Administrative account. Be warned, you’re allowed only three chances to enter the correct password before the computer reboots.

Inside The Console

Once inside the Recovery Console, you’ll find yourself at a console prompt in the \winnt folder - or whatever the %systemroot% folder happens to be on that particular machine. The console view resembles a full-screen command line session, with the console interpreter supporting various commands. Some of these commands provide standard DOS functionality, while others are specific to the Windows 2000 Recovery Console. 

In total, there are around 30 commands including the following:

·          Attrib – Changes the attributes of a file or directory.

·          Batch – Executes the commands specified in a text file.

·          Chkdsk – Checks a disk and displays a current status report.

·          Copy – Copies a single file to another location.

·          Delete (DEL) – Deletes one or more files.

·          Dir – Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.

·          Disable – Disables a system service or a device driver.

·          Diskpart – Manages disk partitions.

·          Enable – Starts or enables a service or device manager.

·          Fixboot – Writes a new partition boot sector.

·          Fixmbr – Writes a new master boot record. 

·          Format – Formats a disk.

·          Listsvc – Lists the available services and drivers.

·          Mkdir – Creates a directory.

·          Rename (REN) – Renames a file.

·          Systemroot – Sets the current directory to the system root directory – typically C:\winnt.

Two further commands are Help and Exit. The Help command provides a list of commands that are possible from the console, and the Exit command ends the console session. For more information on a specific command, type command-name /?.

An Example

It’s all very well having a list of commands at your disposal, but how do you go about making them work for you? Well, here’s an example of how you could use the Recovery Console: let’s suppose the Last Known Good Configuration (brought up by hitting F8 at startup) has failed to repair a Registry because the problem is associated with the Software hive rather than the Control Set.

Assuming you’ve maintained a current copy of the Registry hive in the RegBack directory, the solution is to boot to the Recovery Console and use the Copy command to copy the backup Software hive file from \WINNT\Repair\RegBack to \WINNT\System32\Config. Alternatively, you could use another computer to restore the file from tape, move it to floppy, and use the Recovery Console to copy it to \WINNT\System32\Config directory.

Finally

That ends our look at the many ways in which Windows 2000 can return a sick system back to normal. Of course, Windows 2000 is so reliable that you may never find yourself with a broken system. But if you do, we hope the information we’ve provided to you over these past few weeks will be of benefit. Good luck, and happy fixing!