Recovery Console

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Assuming you have Win2K installed over Win98 (Dos), why use the Recovery Console instead of Dos directly — chkdsk, scandisk, et al…?

Chuck Billow

Chuck Billow

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why use the Recovery Console instead of Dos directly

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[/indent]Because the Recovery Console supports the security model of Windows 2000/XP and is designed specifically for it. You can do some things in pure DOS, but you could also cause problems if you are not 100% sure what you are doing. Additionally, from DOS, you do not have the advanced commands that allow you to repair the boot sector/MBR of your hard drive, along with a few other tools.

Think of it this way, it is a more powerful (in many ways) command line environment than DOS. Super DOS maybe?

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Mark:

MOW I’ AM curious…

My daughter’s PC was running W2K under ntfs… then the problems started…

the hard drive is recognized at bootup by cmos, but not seen past that…

Is this a corrupted MBR?

Could this be fixed within RC, and if so how?

I was thinking of installing the drive in my machine as a “second” and then doing “whatever”…

Ideas?

Chuck

Chuck Billow

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When you say that the drive was not seen past the CMOS, what exactly do you mean? The operating system could not find a fixed disk and would not boot, or do you mean that by booting with a DOS startup disk you could see nothing?

NTFS partitions are not visible from a DOS startup disk. On an NTFS machine, only the recovery console can read and write to an NTFS formatted partition.

It could be a corrupt MBR, but I have no idea how far you are getting in the boot process or what happens when it fails. Can you provide some additional detail?

For the record, fixing the MBR or the boot sector in the recovery is accomplished by:

FIXMBR

To fix the master boot record, and

FIXBOOT

To fix the boot sector.

For a complete list of Recovery Console commands, type HELP at the RC console prompt. (The commands are all case INsensitive). The Repair installation option also checks these items for you and will automagically repair them if needed. This is a better option for fixing low level disk problems.

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Mark:

When I turn on the machine, CMOS (?) shows the drive…

But the minute there is any attempt at bootup, there is a “no drive” message.

Since my pc is Win2K installed over W98 (dos), will my rc see a second disk if I put it in my pc, since the second drive is ntfs?

Can I run the W2K setup and try to “fix” the existing install (since this was the master drive in the “other” pc) on the damaged drive? Can I do this without compromising my installation?

Or should / can I just try to access the drive and “suck off” any important files?

Also, if the computer store said they couldn’t access the drive (either), does this mean they have tried all this, and it is moot at this point?

Chuck

Chuck Billow

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[indent]

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the minute there is any attempt at bootup, there is a “no drive” message

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[/indent]What is the specific error message, and
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will my rc see a second disk if I put it in my pc, since the second drive is ntfs

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[/indent]Yes, because the recovery console understands FAT partitions where DOS does not.
[indent]

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Can I run the W2K setup and try to “fix” the existing install (since this was the master drive in the “other” pc) on the damaged drive? Can I do this without compromising my installation?

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[/indent]Absolutely.
[indent]

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Or should / can I just try to access the drive and “suck off” any important files?

---

[/indent]You can do that too, as long as there is no physical damage to the drive.
[indent]

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if the computer store said they couldn’t access the drive (either), does this mean they have tried all this, and it is moot at this point

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[/indent]Could be, or it could be that they need to visit the Lounge for some answers. I really have no idea. Experiences like this are exactly why I am so demtermined to fix my own problems, because unless I am satisfied with the answer it will not matter what someone in a repair shop tells me.

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mark:

Me too / neither…

I’m gonna give it a shot this weekend…

Thanks
Chuck

Chuck Billow

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mark:

Me too / neither…

I’m gonna give it a shot this weekend…

Thanks
Chuck

Chuck Billow

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Mark:

I just went to take a look at FIXBOOT & FIXMBR… and it says that they are only for x86 machines…

To worry?

Chuck

Chuck Billow

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Are you running an Itanium or AMD64 workstation? x86 refers to the Intel architecture, which includes nearly every CPU but the aforementioned.

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Mark:

Then, I’m goog to go… stupid me…

Thanks.

Chuck

Chuck Billow

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Mark:

Then, I’m goog to go… stupid me…

Thanks.

Chuck

Chuck Billow

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Are you running an Itanium or AMD64 workstation? x86 refers to the Intel architecture, which includes nearly every CPU but the aforementioned.

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Mark:

I just went to take a look at FIXBOOT & FIXMBR… and it says that they are only for x86 machines…

To worry?

Chuck

Chuck Billow

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[indent]

---

the minute there is any attempt at bootup, there is a “no drive” message

---

[/indent]What is the specific error message, and
[indent]

---

will my rc see a second disk if I put it in my pc, since the second drive is ntfs

---

[/indent]Yes, because the recovery console understands FAT partitions where DOS does not.
[indent]

---

Can I run the W2K setup and try to “fix” the existing install (since this was the master drive in the “other” pc) on the damaged drive? Can I do this without compromising my installation?

---

[/indent]Absolutely.
[indent]

---

Or should / can I just try to access the drive and “suck off” any important files?

---

[/indent]You can do that too, as long as there is no physical damage to the drive.
[indent]

---

if the computer store said they couldn’t access the drive (either), does this mean they have tried all this, and it is moot at this point

---

[/indent]Could be, or it could be that they need to visit the Lounge for some answers. I really have no idea. Experiences like this are exactly why I am so demtermined to fix my own problems, because unless I am satisfied with the answer it will not matter what someone in a repair shop tells me.

Reply | Quote

Mark:

When I turn on the machine, CMOS (?) shows the drive…

But the minute there is any attempt at bootup, there is a “no drive” message.

Since my pc is Win2K installed over W98 (dos), will my rc see a second disk if I put it in my pc, since the second drive is ntfs?

Can I run the W2K setup and try to “fix” the existing install (since this was the master drive in the “other” pc) on the damaged drive? Can I do this without compromising my installation?

Or should / can I just try to access the drive and “suck off” any important files?

Also, if the computer store said they couldn’t access the drive (either), does this mean they have tried all this, and it is moot at this point?

Chuck

Chuck Billow

Reply | Quote

When you say that the drive was not seen past the CMOS, what exactly do you mean? The operating system could not find a fixed disk and would not boot, or do you mean that by booting with a DOS startup disk you could see nothing?

NTFS partitions are not visible from a DOS startup disk. On an NTFS machine, only the recovery console can read and write to an NTFS formatted partition.

It could be a corrupt MBR, but I have no idea how far you are getting in the boot process or what happens when it fails. Can you provide some additional detail?

For the record, fixing the MBR or the boot sector in the recovery is accomplished by:

FIXMBR

To fix the master boot record, and

FIXBOOT

To fix the boot sector.

For a complete list of Recovery Console commands, type HELP at the RC console prompt. (The commands are all case INsensitive). The Repair installation option also checks these items for you and will automagically repair them if needed. This is a better option for fixing low level disk problems.

Reply | Quote

Mark:

MOW I’ AM curious…

My daughter’s PC was running W2K under ntfs… then the problems started…

the hard drive is recognized at bootup by cmos, but not seen past that…

Is this a corrupted MBR?

Could this be fixed within RC, and if so how?

I was thinking of installing the drive in my machine as a “second” and then doing “whatever”…

Ideas?

Chuck

Chuck Billow

Reply | Quote