How to installl, start and use the recovery console on windows 10

 How to Install the Recovery Console

To install the Recovery Console, insert the Windows CD-ROM installation into your CD-ROM drive, and close the Windows CD dialog box if it 0pens_ Open a Run dialog box or a Command Prompt window in Windows  and run the command dn’z/e:i386Winnt32.exe /cmdcons, where drive represents the

How to Install the Recovery Console

To install the Recovery Console, insert the Windows 10 CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive, and close the Windows CD dialog box if it 0pens. Open a Run dialog box or a Command Prompt window in Windows, and run the command dnive::\i386\Winnt32.exe /cmdcons, where drive represents the letter of the CD-ROM or network drive that holds the Wmdows Installation. After installation. you can Start the Recovery Console by choosimg lt lrom the list of installed operating systems-you do not need to have the Installation CD

How to Start the Windows Recovery Console

You can also run the Recovery Console from the Windows CD ROM without installing it. The Recovery Console provides a limited set of administrative commands that you can use to repair your Windows  installation. You can use the following steps to start the Recovery Console from the Windows CD-ROM:

1. Insert the Windows CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive and restart the computer
2. When Setup displays the Setup Notification message, read it, and then press Enter to continue.
3. Setup displays the Welcome To Setup screen. In addition to the initial installation of Windows you can use Windows Setup to repair or recover a damaged Windows installation. Press R to repair a Windows installation.

4. The Windows  Recovery Console screen appears. Press C to start the Recovery Console.

5. If you have more than one installation of Windows  on the computer, you are prompted to select which installation you want to repair. Type 1 and then press ENTER.

6. Type the Administrator’s password, and then press ENTER.

7. Setup displays a command prompt. Type help and then press ENTER for a list of the commands available.

8. When you have completed the repair process, type exit and then press ENTER. The computer will restart.

If your computer does not start normally, you might be able to start it by using safe mode. Pressing F8 during the operating system selection phase of startup displays a screen with advanced options for booting Wmdows . If you select safe mode, Windows starts with limited device drivers and system services. These basic device drivers and system services include the mouse, standard VGA monitor, keyboard. mass storage, default system services, and no network connections. Safe mode also ignores programs that automatically start up, user profiles, programs listed in the Registry to automatically run, and all local group policies

Safe mode provides access to Windows configuration files, so you can make configuration changes. You can disable or delete a system service, a device driver, or an application that automatically starts that prevents the computer from starting normally.

If you choose to start your computer in safe mode, the background will be black and “Safe Mode" appears in all four corners of the screen ) If your computer does not start using safe mode, you can try Windows 10 Automatic System Recovery. 

Safe Mode with Networking One variation of safe mode is safe mode with networking, which is identical to safe mode except that it adds the drivers and services necessary to enable networking to function when you restart your computer. Safe mode with networking allows Group Policy to be implemented, including settings that are implemented by the sewer during the logon process and those configured on the local computer.

Safe Mode with Command Prompt

A second variation of safe mode is safe mode with command prompt, which is similar to safe mode, but it loads the command interpreter as the user shell instead of the graphical interface, so when the computer restarts, it displays a command prompt.

  After starting a computer in safe mode, you can use the tools built into Windows  to troubleshoot any problems you are having.

Guidelines for Troubleshooting Startup Using the Last Known Good configuration

Selecting the Last Known Good configuration advanced boot option starts Windows using the control set saved to the Registry following the last successful logon. If you change the Windows configuration to load a driver and have problems rebooting, you can use the Last Known Good configuration to recover your working configuration.

Windows provides two configurations for starting a computer, Default and Last Known Good. Any configuration changes (for example, adding or removing drivers) are saved in the Current control set.
After you reboot the computer, the kernel copies the information in the Current control set to the Clone control set during the kernel initialization phase. When you successfully log on to Windows , the information in the Clone control set is copied to the Last Known Good control set

If you experience startup problems that you think might relate to Windows  configuration changes, shut down the computer without logging on, and then restart it. When you are prompted to select the operating system to start from a list of the operating systems specified in the BOOT.INI file, press F8 to open the Windows Advanced Options Menu screen. Then select the Last Known Good Configuration option.

The Safe Mode and Last Known Good Configuration options are two of the most useful tools to try first when troubleshooting Windows startup. Enabling Boot Logging is also useful, typically when you are having trouble locating the source of the problem.


The next time you log on, the Current configuration is copied to the Default configuration. If your configuration changes work correctly, the next time you log on. the current configuration is copied to the Default configuration. If your configuration changes do not work, you can restart and use the Last Known Good Configuration option to log on

 the purpose of the Default and Last Known Good configurations,

Default and Last Known Good Configurations


Default Contains information that the system saves when a computer shuts down, To start a computer using the default configuration, select Windows on the Please Select The Operating System To Start menu.
Last Known Good configuration Contains information that the system saves after a successful logon.  loads only if the system is recovering from a severe or critical device driver loading error or if it is selected during the boot process.

  When to Use the Last Known Good Configuration

After a new device driver is installed, Windows restarts, but the system stops responding,Use the Last Known Good configuration option to start Windows 10 because the Last Known Good configuration does not contain any reference to the new (possibly faulty) driver. 

You accidentally disable a critical driver Some critical drivers are written to keep users from making the mistake of disabling them, With these drivers, the system automatically reverts to the Last Known Good control set if a user disables the driver. If the driver does not automatically cause the system to revert to the Last Known Good control set, you must manually select the Last Known Good Configuration option.

Using the Last Known Good configuration does not help in the following situations:

When the problem is not related to Windows configuration changes. Such a problem might arise from incorrectly configured user profiles or incorrect file permissions. 

After you log on. The system updates the Last Known Good control set with Wmdows configuration changes after a successful logon.

When startup failures relate to hardware failures or missing or corrupt files

  additional Advanced Boot Options

Enable Boot Logging Selecting the Enable Boot Logging advanced boot option logs the loading and initialization of drivers and services for troubleshooting boot problems. All drivers and services that are loaded and initialized or that are not loaded in a file are logged. The log file, NTBTLOG.TXT, is located in the °/owindir°/o folder. All three versions of safe mode automatically create this boot log file.

Enable VGA Mode Selecting the Enable VGA Mode advanced boot option starts Windows  with a basic VGA driver. Use this setting if you are experiencing problems with the video card, video driver, or monitor.

Directory Services Restore Mode Selecting the Directory Services Restore Mode advanced boot option is applicable only to domain controllers, so it does not apply to computers running Windows .

Debugging Mode Selecting the Debugging Mode advanced boot option starts Windowsin kernel debug mode, which allows a debugger to break into the kernel for troubleshooting and system analysis.

Disable Automatic Restart On System Failure By default, Windows automatically restarts the computer when there is a system failure. Normally, this default setting works well, but you might want to disable automatic restarts when you are troubleshooting certain problems. A good example of this is when troubleshooting stop errors. If automatic restarting is enabled, Windows restarts the computer before you can get a chance to read the error message. Use the Disable Automatic Restart On System Failure setting to prevent Windows from restating when the computer fails (using this setting gives you the chance to read the error or perform any actions you need to perform before a restart).

Attrib Change: the attributes of a tile or folder. -Clears an attribute

+ Sets an attribute

c Compressed file attribute

h Hidden file attribute

r Read-only attribute

s System file attribute

Chdir (Cd)
Displays the name of the current folder or changes the current folder.
Chkdsk
  Checks a disk and displays a status report,
Cls  Clears the screen.
Copy Copies 3 single fde to another location. You cannot copy a file from a hard drive to a floppy disk, but you can copy a file from a floppy disk or a CD-ROM to a hard drive or from a hard drive to another hard drive. This command allows you to access and recover user data when you cannot otherwise start the computer.
Delete (Del) Deletes one or more files.
Dir 
Displays a list of files and subfolders in a folder. The wildcard characters ‘ and ? are permitted.

Disable Disables a system service or a device driver.
Diskpan Creates, deletes, and manages partitions on your hard disk. /add Creates a new partition

/delete Deletes an existing partition

Do not modify the structure of dynamic disks with this command because you might damage your partition table.

Enable
Starts or enables a system service or a device driver.
Exit   Exits the Recovery Console and restarts your computer.
Expand
Expands a compressed file stored on the Windows CD-ROM or from within a .cab file and copies it to a specified destination.
FdiskManages partitions on your hard disk.
Fixboot Writes a new partition boot sector onto the system partition.
Fixmbr Repairs the MBR of the partition boot sector. This command overwrites only the master boot code, leaving the existing partition table intact. If corruption in the MBR affects the partition table, running fixmbr might not resolve the problem.
Format Formats a disk. If no file system is specified, NTFS is used by default.
Help Lists the commands you can use in the Recovery Console.

Logon Logs on to a Windows  installation. 
Map Displays the drive letter mappings.
Mkdir (md) Creates a folder.


Although the Recovery Console is useful for replacing missing and corrupted t files such as NTLDR and for fixing problematic MBRs, this is an area in which you should be careful. One of the most common reasons for MBR and NTLDR problems is a type of virus known as a boot sector virus-a virus that resides in the MBR. Once entrenched, boot sector viruses can set about corrupting other files, such as NTLDR. Boot sector viruses can also be difficult to get rid of because they can often survive even a full reformatting of a hard disk. Even if you use the Recovery Console to fix a corrupted boot file, you should not assume that you have gotten to the root of the problem.

Fortunately, there are some fairly simple steps you can take to help prevent boot sector viruses from ever becoming a problem. First, all computers should be running good antivirus software that is kept up-to-date with the latest virus information. You should configure the antivirus software to perform full system scans regularly~scans that include the MBR. On most computers, you can also configure BIOS to prevent virus-like activity (which essentially means that it will prompt you before it allows any program to write information to the boot sector).