How To Access & Use Recovery Console

How To Access & Use Recovery Console

The Recovery Console is usually accessed via booting from a Windows installation CD. Recovery Console can also sometimes be accessed from the boot menu, but only if it has been preinstalled on your system.

See How To Enter Recovery Console From the Windows XP CD for a complete walkthrough of the process.

A number of commands, unsurprisingly called Recovery Console commands (all listed below), are available from within Recovery Console. Using these commands in specific ways can help solve specific problems.

Here are some examples where executing a particular command in the Recovery Console is necessary to fix a serious Windows issue:

• Repair the Master Boot Record in Windows XP
• Restore Hal.dll From the Windows XP CD
• Restore NTLDR and Ntdetect.com From the Windows XP CD