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Seeing that a lot of people are having various problems needing recovery console to fix, I thought to give you this tip:

You can install Recovery Console to boot menu, eliminating the need of Windows CD. You just need the CD to do it

From the CD, run

\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

This should install it to boot menu so that you can select it by pressing F8 when booting in the future.

That's a great tip Mictlantecuhtli. I'll make it a "READ" thread so it sticks at the top.

Excellent tip, Mict. I just did it and I'm sure it will be a great help in the future

could you explain the step by step on this, I think this is what I might need to fix my problem. Thanks

Insert your windows 2000 or XP CD.

Open the command prompt, either from menu or by going to start, run, and typing

cmd.exe

and then return.

opens command prompt windows.

now, issue this command:

d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

where d: is the drive letter of your CD ROM drive. There will be some basic setup questions. Then, reboot. You can now select the recovery console from the boot menu, which can help you diagnose problems with your machine.

the recovery console is also available without prior installation if you boot from the windows CD and choose to recover.

Thank you. I am new to this board but am definitely impressed with it.

It seems like whenever I need recovery console, the problem is so bad that I can't boot into recovery console from the boot menu.

Of course, it is certainly something I have installed though.

So how do you uninstall it?

Open a command prompt, then :

cd c:\
attrib -hsr boot.ini
edit boot.ini

Remove the line for the recovery console & ONLY THAT LINE. Save the changes then :

attrib +hsr boot.ini

As i mentioned in the previous thread ''Read : How to ...'' i seem to have a corrupted registry problem. When i boot from the Windows CD my PC freezes when i get to the Welcome to Setup screen where i could do a setup or select ''R'' for repair. I cannot go into safe mode either because i get the same ''...\system file is missing or corrupt'' message so no command prompt available there for me. I tried creating and using the 6 setup diskettes but that didn't help. I downloaded the latest raid driver but that didn't help either.

So i wonder, how can i access the Windows CD to run ''\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons'' so as to install it at the boot menu since i cannot get a command prompt (unless there is a way that i don't know) ?

Just a small tip that might help recovery console usage:



At least Windows Server 2003 and server versions of Win2k have Local Security Policy Editor, but 2k workstation and XP Pro should have Group Policy Object Editor too, just run gpedit.msc and navigate to Computer Configuration - Windows Settings - Security Settings - Local Policies - Security Options.

is there a way to do this for SP2? when i try doing that it says "Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD."

Slipstreaming SP2 files into XP's i386 directory is the only option that I can think of in that case.

So, you need to copy the XP CD to hard disk, then run SP2 network installer with parameter /integrate:pathwhereyoucopiedit, for example WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe /integrate:c:\xpcd.

Then you can run winnt32 /cmdcons from c:\xpcd and delete the directory.

Heh, hundreds of megabytes needed for 7 megabyte recovery console installation :giddy:

I have a Compaq Presario system that came with no XP CD. How then do I install the Recovery Console?

Download & create XP boot floppies, and boot to recovery console using them. It won't install it to the boot menu however, and I can't think of other means without a CD now.

edit:
Just a thought.. don't OEMs leave the install files to hard disk somewhere? You could try searching for winnt32.exe, including hidden & system files in search.

Yes, found winnt32.exe in window\I386

Does it replace the contents in file boot.bak as well?

It's much simpler to rename to boot.bak to boot ini. But for arguement sake, it's possible to edit files using Recovery Console - albeit an indirect method.

There are certain limitations to Recovery Console. It doesnt include a text editor & it doesnt allow copying files to removable media like floppies.

Despite so, it's still possible to edit boot.ini.

Using recovery console, we can still view the contents of boot.ini - type c:\boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=2
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Copy the contents of boot.ini into a piece of paper.

Use another computer (Notepad.exe) or Win98 startup disk (Edit.com) to create a new boot.ini.

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Copy this into new boot.ini into a floppy & use it to overwrite unto existing copy in Recovery Console. Type copy a:\boot.ini c:\boot.ini

I have found that the recovery console will not install if you have SP2 installed, so I usually install it first. I didn't check if there is a recovery console for SP2 in the service pack installation folders, there might be.

Look at the picture above.