Recovering W2K via the repair folder

[Harrison Midkiff]

Hello:

I have been looking for a TechNet article which covers recovering a crashed
computer by using the recovery console and renaming files in the "repair"
folder. Does anyone know the process to do this type of a recovery?
Thanks...

Harrison Midkiff

 

[Guest]

Hi Harrision,

Have a look at the links below, they should hopefully cover off many of the
things your after. If not I can probably find some other info on the
recovery console.

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654

Support WebCast: Microsoft Windows XP: Exploring Boot Options and Recovery
Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324465

Heres a webcast on how to use it foir Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325142

DJW

 

[Rebecca Chen [MSFT]]

The brief steps look like the following:

1. Restart your computer by using a Windows 2000 or Windows XP CD-ROM



2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the
Recovery Console (Windows XP) or press R (to repair an existing Windows
2000 installation), and then at the next screen, press C to continue to the
Recovery Console.

Any update, let's get in touch!


Rebecca Chen

MCSE2000 MCDBA CCNA


Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

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[Dave Patrick]

You can replace registry hives from within the recovery console.

You can try using the most recent backup found in;
%windir%\repair\regback

or use the original-as-installed system hive from;
%windir%\repair\system
to
%windir%\system32\config\syste­m
You'll need to reinstall the device drivers for any hardware added since the
original OS install.

To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000
Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. If you do not have Setup
floppy disks and your computer cannot start from the Windows 2000 Setup CD,
use another Windows 2000-based computer to create the Setup floppy disks. At
the "Welcome to Setup" screen. Press F10 or R to repair a Windows 2000
installation, and then press C to use the Recovery Console. The Recovery
Console then prompts you for the administrator password. If you do not have
the correct password, Recovery Console does not allow access to the
computer. If an incorrect password is entered three times, the Recovery
Console quits and restarts the computer. Note If the registry is corrupted
or missing or no valid installations are found, the Recovery Console starts
in the root of the startup volume without requiring a password. You cannot
access any folders, but you can carry out commands such as chkdsk, fixboot,
and fixmbr for limited disk repairs. Once the password has been validated,
you have full access to the Recovery Console, but limited access to the hard
disk. You can only access the following folders on your computer: drive
root, %systemroot% or %windir%

You can run Programs|Accessories|System Tools|Backup, then choose ERD, then
if you check the box for "Also backup....", then the reg will also be backed
up to
%windir%\repair\RegBack
leaving the
%windir%\repair\
directory files intact as original installation.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Hello:
|
| I have been looking for a TechNet article which covers recovering a
crashed
| computer by using the recovery console and renaming files in the "repair"
| folder. Does anyone know the process to do this type of a recovery?
| Thanks...
|
| Harrison Midkiff
|
|

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Harrison - In addition to the info Rebecca and Dave provided, you may be
interested in a slightly different approach using Erunt/Erdnt.

Get Erunt here for all NT-based computers including XP:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ I've set it up to take a
scheduled backup each night at 12:01AM on a weekly round-robin basis, and a
Monthly on the 1st of each month. See here for how to set that up:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt, and for some
useful information about this subject

The following tutorials are useful:

Installing & Using ERUNT
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html

To see an illustrated registry restore procedure
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_erdntuse.html

This program is one of the best things around - saved my butt on many
occasions, and will also run very nicely from a DOS prompt (in case you've
done something that won't let you boot any more and need to revert to a
previous Registry) IF you're FAT32 OR have a DOS startup disk with NTFS
write drivers in an NTFS system. (There is also a way using the Recovery
Console to get back to being "bootable" even without separate DOS write NTFS
drivers, after which you can do a normal ERDNT restore. See erunt.txt for
detailed instructions. Basically, if you make your backup into a folder
inside your Windows or Winnt folder, you can restore at a Recovery Console
boot by copying the files from that ERDNT folder into the system32\config
folder. After a good boot, then do another normal ERDNT restore to also
restore the user hives also.) (BTW, it also includes a Registry defragger
program). Free, and very, very highly recommended.

FYI, quoting from the above document:

Note: The "Export registry" function in Regedit is USELESS (!) to make a
complete backup of the registry. Neither does it export the whole registry
(for example, no information from the "SECURITY" hive is saved), nor can the
exported file be used later to replace the current registry with the old
one. Instead, if you re-import the file, it is merged with the current
registry, leaving you with an absolute mess of old and new registry keys.



Here's a bit more info about the Recovery Console approach using Erdnt:


You can only do this from a DOS boot if your file system is
FAT32 OR you have NTFS drivers. However, you can do a partial restore to
get back to being bootable by using the Recovery Console if you've installed
it, and then do a full restore. (BTW, remember to re-install the Recovery
Console if you slipstream any of your SP's into a local i386 folder.)

Essentially, the approach is to put the ERDNT folder(s) where your nightly
ERUNT is saved inside %SystemRoot% and then use the Recovery Console to
first back up the existing hives in %SystemRoot%\System32\Config and then
replace them with the ones from an appropriate ERDNT folder. This won't
restore the User hives, but will let you boot so that you can then do a
normal ERDNT restore of all hives. You can do it manually or you can
automate the process by using a batch regcopy1.txt command in
Recovery Console where regcopy1.txt contains something like (in this case
E:\ is the %SystemRoot% for my Win2kProSP4 system, and I save to both a Temp
folder and a nightly named folder each night. Here I'm just using the Temp
which will have the last night's save in it. On most XP systems, you would
need to use c:\Windows\system32 . . . instead):

md tmp
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\system e:\winnt\tmp\system.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\software e:\winnt\tmp\software.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\sam e:\winnt\tmp\sam.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\security e:\winnt\tmp\security.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\default e:\winnt\tmp\default.bak

delete e:\winnt\system32\config\system
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\software
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\sam
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\security
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\default

copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\system e:\winnt\system32\config\system
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\software e:\winnt\system32\config\software
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\sam e:\winnt\system32\config\sam
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\security e:\winnt\system32\config\security
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\default e:\winnt\system32\config\default


See: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545 (Be
very careful about your specific system's ERUNT naming conventions which can
depend upon just how your backup was saved, manually vs. a scheduled task.)

 

[Rebecca Chen [MSFT]]

Hi Harrison,

I would like to confirm my understanding that you want to restore the
original hive in repair folder? Are you unable to boot in the normal mode
due to the corrupted system registry?


If this is the case, I have found the following article has described the
info, it also applies to the win2k system. Please refer to the article
carefully to see if you encounter the same error when you start win2k
machine:

To recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting
How thttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545

The following article describes recovery console in win2k machine, and I
would like to extract the following info which may be your interests:

Select Fast Repair if you need to recover a newly installed system. Fast
Repair automatically performs all three Manual Repair options and verifies
crucial registry files (i.e., SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, and SOFTWARE). If a
hive is missing or corrupted, Fast Repair copies the version that resides
in the \%systemroot%\repair directory to the \%systemroot%\system32\config
directory. Of course, this process restores the original (as opposed to the
current) registry file, which returns the system to its original
configuration.

If you must use Fast Repair, you can then restore the current state from a
backup or use the RC to replace the generic versions of the registry hives
with current versions that reside in the \regback directory. The Microsoft
article "Differences Between Manual and Fast Repair in Windows 2000"
(http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q238/3/59.asp) details
each of these operations and provides additional repair-related references.


More info can be found from the article below:

The ABCs of Win2K Recovery and Repair
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnw2kmag01/
html/Win2KRecoveryandRepair.asp

If you have any update or questions, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,

Rebecca Chen

MCSE2000 MCDBA CCNA


Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

=====================================================

When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.

=====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

--------------------