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| Recovery Console |
If you cannot use a Restore Point to return your pc to a working state you may have to use the Recovery Console on your
Windows installation disk to reconfigure your Windows system.
Microsoft advice for Windows XP users.
Please Backup any important files and folders that you can before using the Recovery Console - you may lose data as part of the
process due to the patching of faulty areas of the harddrive, and files that are repaired will need updating with Windows Update as soon as you can.
To run the Recovery Console from your Windows disk
Use the information under System Recovery to change your motherboard BIOS settings
to check the CD (or DVD) drive for a boot-up process. This will detect your Windows disk and boot-up using it instead of your normal harddrive.
Choose 'R' to enter the recovery console, here called the Rescue Console.
Once in the recovery console, you can run Chkdsk and you can check the start up state of Windows services for obvious problems:
Type chkdsk /r to run a scan of your harddrive(s) for errors.
Type listsvc to see a list of services that can be enabled or disabled.
enable <servicename> <start-type> enables a service, with a start type:
SERVICE_DISABLED
SERVICE_BOOT_START
SERVICE_SYSTEM_START
SERVICE_AUTO_START
SERVICE_DEMAND
disable <servicename> disables a service, but prints out the previous start-type, which should be recorded
in case you need to re-enable the service.
These are the core Windows services you may need to switch on if they are listed as disabled:
Services with recommended startup setting 'auto':
(for example, enable AudioSrv SERVICE_AUTO_START)
AudioSrv
BFE (Vista only)
CryptSvc
DcomLaunch
Dhcp
dmserver
EventSystem
PlugPlay
PolicyAgent
RpcSs
SamSs
SENS
SharedAccess
srservice
W32Time
winmgmt
wscsvc
Services with recommended startup setting 'demand':
(for example, enable Appinfo SERVICE_DEMAND)
Appinfo (Vista only)
AxInstSV (7 only)
Eventlog
KeyIso (Vista only)
Netman
Nla
wbengine (Vista only)
To install the Recovery Console so that you can access it from the Windows boot screen
Click Start/Run, type cmd and click OK. In the cmd box type D:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons (replace D: with the letter for your CD drive).
In the case of Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, type d:\amd64\winnt32.exe /cmdcons
Warnings and Workarounds
WARNING: Due to unknown reasons the recovery console can sometimes reject the correct administrator password,
in which case follow this workaround if possible, again access to Safe Mode is required.
Firstly we need to enable Administrator to Log On Automatically in Recovery Console & reboot.
Select Start/Run, type regedit to open the Registry Editor.
Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Setup\RecoveryConsole
change the SecurityLevel DWORD value data to 1, close Registry Editor and restart.
WARNING: If your Windows installation disk is version Service Pack 1 and you have now updated to SP2 or SP3 you will get the error message
"version of Windows on the system is newer than the version being installed". To follow this workaround you will need to have access to Safe Mode.
Open the folder containing the SP2 installer, copy its location from the Address bar. Click Start/Run, type cmd.
In the cmd box type cd then press Ctrl and V to paste in the SP2 folder location and press Return.
To extract the contents of the SP2 Installer type:
WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe -x
and press Return.
Choose a folder to extract the files to e.g. file:///c:/SP2
Make a backup copy of the file winnt32.exe in c:\windows\i386
Replace the winnt32.exe file in c:\windows\i386 with the identically named file from C:\SP2\i386
(or in the i386 folder of the folder where you extracted the SP2 files)
Click Start/Run, type cmd. In the cmd box type cd c:\windows\i386 and press Return.
Type winnt32.exe /cmdcons
The Recovery Console should now install
(Ignore the first error message, if any)
Finally put the backup copy of winnt32.exe back into c:\windows\i386 replacing the one from SP2.
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