Recovery console
The Recovery Console is a function of Windows 2000 , Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that is used to repair an installation of the Windows operating system that is no longer working . With Windows Vista , the Recovery Console has been replaced by the Windows Recovery Environment, a graphical system based on Windows PE .
Go to the recovery console
The Recovery Console is included on the Windows CD and can be accessed by booting from the CD and selecting the appropriate option at the start of setup. The recovery console checks the hard drive for existing installations of Windows and requires the administrator password in order to be able to run.
Alternatively, the recovery console can be installed on the hard drive. To do this, the file winnt32.exeon the CD must be /cmdconscalled with the parameter . This creates a boot menu in the boot.iniand offers the option of starting the recovery console each time the system is started.
Recovery Console Features
Functionally, the recovery console is a command line-based shell. Although the Recovery Console looks similar to MS-DOS or the cmd.exe command prompt in Windows, the commands are incompatible, although in many cases they are very similar.
The recovery console offers a few special commands. So the command repairs fixmbrthe master boot record of a data store, usually a hard disk, and the command fixbootof the boot sector of the partition .
By default, access to the hard disk is severely restricted; only the Windows directory and its subdirectories can be called up. This restriction can be removed in the Windows registry , so that access to the entire hard disk and also to removable media is possible with the appropriate commands.
See also
Web links
- Description of the Recovery Console in the Microsoft Knowledge Base