Accessing Xp Recovery Console

[Roy_W]

I have a problem with the LILO boot loader and would now like to delete it.
As far as I know the best method would be to boot to the Recovery Console and use "fdisk /mbr" in order to replace the master boot record.

Problem : How do I boot to the "XP Recovery Console" using IBM's Recovery CD's. I certainly "DO NOT" want to format my hard disk as offered when booting from the IBM CD's. I only wish to have access to the standard XP Install screens where I can access the recovery Console.

Thanks for any help.


Roy

[jdhurst]

The procedure below is to ensure that the recovery CD will work. It is for recovery, but you can escape from it, so you can see if it does what you want. I do *not* know if it will allow you to change the master boot record without making you re-image; and I do *not* represent that it does.

1. Start your machine in the BIOS and set the startup option to boot from CD. Do not use the temporary "F" boot key on startup.
2. Re-start with your recovery CD in the drive.
3. Follow the start-up steps to the main recovery menu.
4. Press F3 to quit this menu.
5. Press Esc. This should bring you to DOS at X:\Recovery
6. Run FDISK with the options you need.

If this process forces you to recover your machine, it is what the recovery CD's do, so please be careful. .... jdhurst

[stbrown]

I have a problem with the LILO boot loader and would now like to delete it.
As far as I know the best method would be to boot to the Recovery Console and use "fdisk /mbr" in order to replace the master boot record.

Problem : How do I boot to the "XP Recovery Console" using IBM's Recovery CD's. I certainly "DO NOT" want to format my hard disk as offered when booting from the IBM CD's. I only wish to have access to the standard XP Install screens where I can access the recovery Console.

Thanks for any help.


Roy

You can install it by running the follow command in windows

c:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

Steve

[Roy_W]

[quote="stbrown
You can install it by running the follow command in windows

c:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

Steve[/quote]

I believe that that command would change the boot.ini, thereby adding the extra choice of the recovery console from the normal windows ( NT) boot loader. It would also install various files into "c:\cmdcons" in a hidden directory.

The problem for me though is that this solution requires that I eventually
have access to the NT Boot Loader, which I don't unless "lilo loader" lets me pass by. It's enough that I forget to run "lilo" after changing "lilo.conf" to allow this to happen when recompiling kernels.

[Roy_W]

Ok, thanks to you both and I have found a suitable solution. It was just a matter of rolling both your posts into one.

1. Start your machine in the BIOS and set the startup option to boot from CD. Do not use the temporary "F" boot key on startup.
2. Re-start with your recovery CD in the drive.
3. Follow the start-up steps to the main recovery menu.
4. Run the Interactive System diagnostics.
5. The last menu then gives the option a a Dos Shell.
6. fdisk /mbr

This rewrites the MBR, which in turn allows me directly thru to the NT Boot Loader ( lilo has now been removed ).

I can now follow thru with Steves advice and install the "cmdcons" onto the C drive.

One little point though, obviously c:\i386 must previously exist on the Hard Drive as IBM's CD's do not include the directory i386 in a readable format. I'm lucky that I decided not to delete it after all.

Its probably a wise choise for me to burn/copy that directory elsewhere for safekeeping.

Thanks.