Repair Pc Guide

How to Install or Start Recovery Console From a CD

The recovery console is a program provided by Microsoft to help you fix your computer when it either starts with errors or when you cannot boot your computer. This is a good utility to use when you have problems, but it was designed for the advanced user. With this article, however, you should be able to follow a step-by-step guide to recovering your computer without worry or trouble.

Before you use Recovery Console what should you do?
Before starting a Recovery Console, the first choice is to boot your computer in the Safe Mode and undo last changes you made to your PC, for example if it stopped booting up after an installation of some program you should uninstall it in the safe mode and then re-start the PC. Or you can choose “Last known good configuration” in the Safe Mode menu that will help to bring your PC to the last working state. Often this will fix any trouble you have. If it doesn’t you can head over to Recovery Console.

How to get into the Safe Mode in Windows XP and Vista?
Usually you should tap F8 key continuously or hold it after turning on your computer. If you fail to get to the Safe Mode menu turn it off while it boots up and then start it again. Windows will detect that it was turned off incorrectly and will bring up “Windows Advanced Options Menu” where you can select the “Safe Mode” or “Last known good configuration” option. Sometimes PC restarts itself if there is already some problem so the “Windows Advance Option Menu” comes automatically every time a PC starts up.

Using a Recovery Console

If you have a Recovery Console installed on your PC you will see this option when PC starts up, it will give you the option to choose between a Recovery Console and the Windows. Otherwise you need to start it straight from your Windows installation CD.  When you cannot start your computer and all other attempts failed you can use this utility to find and fix any errors and bad sectors on your hard disk including Windows corrupted files. Now we will discuss how to use this Utility.

Place your installation CD into your CD or DVD drive. Once that is done, choose to restart your computer. This will cue the computer to read the disk upon boot up. You will come to a “Welcome to setup” screen once you do this. Otherwise follow command prompts to enter Boot Menu when your PC starts up (usually hit F8 or F11) then select CD drive to start your computer from and hit Enter. If you fail to bring up Boot Menu you can enter Bios setup and change boot order placing first CD or DVD drive to start you PC from, after recovering you can revert the order as it was before.

When it starts up from the CD it will load up drivers, you should just wait till you get to the “Welcome to setup” screen. Then press R (Repair) on the keyboard. This will tell Windows to go to the Recovery Console. Then it will ask you what operating system you’d like to recover, if you have only one on your hard disc type “1″ on your keyboard (without quotes) and press enter. You will have to log in with an Administrator’s password, if this is relevant on your computer. If you do not have this option, or there is no Administrator’s password all you need to do is press the Enter key.

Using Recovery Console commands
You will now have to use commands to help locate the error causing the trouble with your PC and to repair the installation. If you do not familiar with commands you can type HELP and press Enter, it will list you all commands you can use in recovery console. To get more detailed explanation of each command type HELP and “command name” (without quotes) and then press Enter. It is very important that you use the proper commands when using the Recovery Console. If you are not advanced user I suggest you to use only few commands that can be very helpful in fixing your PC.
You can type CHKDSK /R then press enter and it will locate any bad sectors and errors on the partition where the Windows is installed and correct them.
Use also FIXBOOT to repair system boot sector and  rewrite the code, maybe it was damaged and that is why your PC can not start. Another command FIXMBR will recover MBR (Master Boot Record) table of the current partition if it was damaged and that is another reason why your PC can’t start. Use this command with caution when all else fails. In my experience these commands resolved most of problems. Once you’ve done it simply type EXIT into the dialogue box and hit enter.

Back up your hard drive by creating the exact image of it

It is a very good idea to create the exact image of your hard disc before you start using recovery console as there is a possibility of causing even more problems and damage by using it or using it not correctly. Use Acronis True Image to create an image of your HD by using their Bootable Rescue Media or creating an Acronis Secure Zone on the same hard disc if you are able to access Windows interface.

The Acronis Secure Zone is protected and no virus or program can access this area. So if your Windows is up and running create a full back up to this zone. Now if there are any trouble you press F11 at PC startup and you will be able to restore whole PC by managing Acronis Linux menu.

If you can not start up your pc but want to make an image of the hard disk before playing with a Recovery Console you can create Acronis Bootable Rescue Media on another computer, then insert it and start your PC from this media in the same way as it was explained above. Follow instructions create an exact image of whole hard drive. You always can restore whole disk in the event of disaster.

Installing a Recovery Console

Most people prefer to install the Recovery Console directly to their PC and use it as they would a regular operating system. Having this program set up while the PCs are still working is a good plan, so it can be used as a startup option when you have problems.

You should locate your Windows XP CD and put it in the CD-Rom drive. Once you do that select Start and choose the Run button. Once you get the Run box, you need to type the following code: D:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons presuming D is CD or DVD drive letter. If not, simply replace D with the letter of your drive. Note: If you are using Windows XP Professional x64 edition the command is D:\amd64\winnt32.exe /cmdcons. Note there is space before /cmdcons.

Once you do that a dialog box will appear allowing you to setup Windows. This will give you the option to choose the Recovery Console option. Choose “Yes” and confirm that you wish to start the installation. Then you should restart your computer. Once this is done you will see that you now have the option for “Microsoft Windows Recovery Console” when you start up your PC.

Troubleshooting
Sometimes the following error will appear: “Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD”. There is an easy solution for this in the Microsoft Knowledge Base under article 898594. Usually this will happen when you are installing Service Pack 1 or just Windows XP on a Microsoft Windows XP computer running Service Pack 2.

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