Recovery Console - Comments Page 1

Bob,in this Recovery Console bootup screen article, you said to supply an Administration password.Where may I find the password? As far as I know there is no password to enter. Do I have to make up one to use? Where? How? Sorry for this silly question, but I need to know. thank you, Josephine

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you don't have a startup password, just press ENTER at that point.

I've installed recovery console on my hard disk but would like to reduce the delay time before xp starts automatically - it's currently 30 seconds.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Just hit ENTER when you see the boot prompt... it'll go without delay.

I think David above is trying to say that he had a single-boot OS setup without any boot prompt and now after installing Recovery Console his PC delays boot-up by 30 seconds if he's unavailable to hit ENTER. So, if I'm right David you just need to edit "C:\Boot.ini" and change the "timeout=30" seconds to a suitable lower value.

My computer uses Windows 2000 op system. The op sys got screwed up because when I turn on the computer Windows tries to boot up, but turns off just as it is about to get to the screen where you put in your name and password. Then it reboots and tries again----a horrible loop to be stuck in. I tried automatic recovery through the console, but it was unable to repaid. So now I am trying to resolve through Recovery Console via the MSDOS commands, but I don't know what commands to enter. Should I try FIXBOOT command?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'd give it a try... it won't do anything destructive.

PC came with XP Home on recovery partition. Updated faithfully all the time. Only learned about the recovery console later. Will not install, because I now have a "newer" version. Followed MS articles, copied I386 to C:\XPCD, downloaded SP2. Build the C:\XPSP2 directory. Tried the install again, now get message "The installation source path specified to Setup is invalid. Contact your system administrator", and of course the RC is not installed. Help anyone, please...

The Recovery Console CAN be installed after Windows XP Service Pack 2 has been installed. Basically, you must temporarily replace the XPSP1 c:\i386\WINNT32.EXE file with the XPSP2 WINNT32.EXE file, then you run the "c:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons" command. No other changes or Registry edits should be necessary. There are step-by-step instructions on the following page:

Microsoft Windows XP FAQ - (21) Recovery Console SP2 Revision - http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#021

Under step number 21-4, click the link "SP2 work around fix". In case the above link is broken, here's the text of the workaround [I've added a few additional comments in brackets]:

You need the full network version of SP2. Downloadable from here

1. Open a command prompt in the folder containing the SP2 installer and type "WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe -x". Choose a folder to extract the files to e.g. file:///c:/SP2files [You can also burn these files to a CD].

2. Make a backup of the file winnt32.exe in c:\windows\i386 [or in c:\i386].

3. Replace the winnt32.exe file in c:\windows\i386 with the identically named file in C:\sp2files\i386 (or in the i386 folder in the folder where you extracted the files.)

4. Open a command prompt at c:\windows\i386. Type "winnt32.exe /cmdcons" [you can also use Start > Run > "c:\windows\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcoms"]. Recovery Console should install (Ignore the first error message, if any.) [Cancel the "Microsoft Dynamic Update" if it appears, and select "Skip this step and continue Windows installation".]

5. Replace the winnt32.exe in c:\windows\i386 with its original version (created in step 2.)

I've done this twice on separate XP machines and it works fine.

After getting an MMPool_CORRUPT error, I figured that running the repair console and fixing the corrupted driver with chkdsk /r would be the best option.

I boot up from the disk just fine, and I enter the setup part. I have the option of giving XP a clean install or accessing the repair console. However, when I try to repair, it says that Windows cannot detect a hard disk drive in my box. But the kicker is, there is one in there, and it has Windows XP home edition on it as well! Please help =(

EDITOR'S NOTE: Can you boot from that drive?

I have installed the recovery console as per instructions, with no problems. but I'm curious. Does anyone know, where it is in the hard drive? or what it's called. I have looked every where. I've looked for "Microsoft windows recovery console" as listed at startup. I've followed the path, C:\WINDOWS\I386\WINNT32.EXE /cmdcons this leads to an WMP Icon, which opens the WMP file.

The recovery console installs a *hidden* folder in the root of your drive called cmdcons. This is where it is installed.

(C:/cmdcons/)

Hi Bob, which is the Windows XP Setup disk? I only have a Windows XP Professional disc that came with my computer; are they the both same? My computer cannot boot up for some reason and will only always show a black background with white words saying Windows did not start succesfully and then giving me a few options. However each option will only bring me back to that same screen.

I've tried to boot up using the Windows XP Professional cd in the hope of using the recovery console, but the CD-ROM drive does not seem to read the disc at all. Can you give me some suggestions?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, that should be the correct CD. Check your BIOS to see if booting from the CD is enabled and that it's first on the list.

Hi Bob - I am accessing the recovery console by using a friends Windows XP disk (I only have the PCs Recovery disk), so when I press R for Recovery console it goes to another blue screen & message at bottom of screen says examining my hard drive - it did this for a few minutes before I switched PC off - should I wait longer or do you think it has hung up at this point? Thanks --- Bruce

EDITOR'S NOTE: What can you lose by waiting longer? That's what I would do...

Ok Bob I waited a bit longer - 12 hrs in fact & still message sat there saying it was examining the 60GB drive!! So have switched off. Any other ideas on how to get Recovery console running - reason I need this is that my PC was crashed by someone switching the power off whilst it was booting!!! Want to get into it & sort out some of the Windows files so that it will boot or recover to an earlier point? Thanks --- Bruce

EDITOR'S NOTE: Can you boot from the Windows CD and do a Repair?

Hi Bob. I seem to be having the same problems that Marados is having. My 200 gb SATA drive won’t boot, and recovery console tells me there is no drive present. Although, if I install this drive as a slave to an 80 gb IDE dive, it is fully accessible. My guess is a corrupt MBR, but I cannot access it. Is there a way to manually fix the MBR if I cannot boot the drive?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Both FIXBOOT and FIXMBR accept optional parameters to specify which drive you want.

It should be noted that many people new to the recovery console get stuck trying to login when requested to "Type the Administrator Password". Most systems (in my experience) don't require a password at this point and simply hitting enter will do.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, that was mentioned in the first comment as well.

I get to the prompt of 'Which Windows installation would you like to log onto'. There's a list containing just C:\WINDOWS. So I enter '1' followed by . Keyboard loses control, but there's no response on screen and nothing happens even if machine is left for hours. Any help much appreciated.

I am trying to boot to recovery console but I do not get the prompt to login in a windows installation. It just goes directly to the C:\ prompt. Any commands entered comes back with -- cannot find a windows installation. Can anyone tell me what the heck is going on?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Did you boot from the Windows setup CD?

Hi, I'm trying to access the recovery console booting my laptop with a winxp CD. At the password prompt, I've used blank by just striking the enter key, used the password i log onto xp with, neither worked. i just needed to replace a corrupt/missing file 'ntoskrnl.exe'. can someone help please!

I am having the same problem that chyo is having. My windows xp disk will not read, even when BIOS is set up to read cd drive. I get a windows will not start screen, and when going to start normally option, I get a blue screen saying I have a registry file failure problem. I used a floppy boot disk to read floppy drive, but can't acess cd drive on my laptop. What should I do?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Did the system start booting from the CD? Does the CD work in another computer?

I've got the same problem as 'kneedhelp': can't boot from cd drive - the disk does work in my other computer - and get a blue screen reading: STOP: c0000218 (registry file failure). the registry cannot load the hive (file):\systemroot\system32\config\software -- and then it begins to dump. When finished it takes me back to the start again. What can I do?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Again, it appears that you are actually booting from the hard drive, and not the CD. You may need to enter the Setup (BIOS) screens and explicitly tell it to look for the CDROM drive first when booting.

Yesterday my computer started hanging up when I was trying to close Firefox. I cut it off manually and now when Windows starts, it asks me if I want to start in Windows XP Home Edition or if I want to use the Recovery Console. How do I stop that screen from coming up? Thanks.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Try running the "CHKDSK C: /F /R" command to find and fix errors on the disk.