Recovery console in Win XP home

[Alister]

I want to install RC, but before installing it, I want to know how the system will behave upon start. Will there be a OS selection menu, or a certain key has to be pressed to enter a selection menu? If someone has RC installed, please let me how this works..... Thanks.

[PrntRhd]

You may have to obtain the files for RC via Microsoft Q310994.
Some screenshots are near the bottom the page here:
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

I hope this helps.
:)

[Alister]

Hi,
This is actually not the answer I was seeking. I know how to install it. I just don't know what will happen when I power up my PC! Will I get a boot menu from where I can select RC or will I have to strike a key to take me to a menu? The above link is irrelevant.

[PrntRhd]

You boot directly from the CD-ROM or from the first of the 6 floppies that were created, depending on how your PC is set up.

If using the CD-ROM, you will get a "Welcome to Setup" screen where you can choose "Repair Installation using Recovery Console" by pressing R as the screen will prompt you.
If using 6 floppies, you boot with the first floppy and will get a "Setup is inspecting your hardware config" message, then a "Windows setup" screen where it asks you to insert floppy #2.

No F keys required

[Jiggy]

Put your WinXP cd in drive, go to Start\Run and type the line below,

Letter of your cd-rom here\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons

Then press enter, this will install the RC to your hard drive.

When you have installed the RC and you reboot your pc you will need to press F8 which will display a list of ways to start your pc, Safe Mode, Safe Mode + Networking and once installed Recoverey Console will be an option.

Hope it helps.

[jlreich]

Are you wanting to actually install the recovery program on the hard drive? If so, I do believe it will be added to the boot menu. Meaning you will have a choice at startup. You can if you like, then edit the boot.ini file to make XP or the RC the default, and how long you want the boot menu to appear before booting to the default. I believe it will wait 30 seconds for you to make a choice by default. So if you have XP as default and want to use the RC, you will have to highlight the RC on the boot menu and hit enter.

I do not have the RC installed, but have been reading up on some of it's functions lately, and I do believe that's what it said. If I am wrong someone will correct me.

Hope that helps.

EDIT - you beat me Jiggy, and with better info. :p

[Alister]

Hi Jlerich,
You are obviously the only one who read my post with full attention. Thanks.
Yes, I want to install it on the hard drive because I do not have a win CD. My computer is an OEM version. Right now, when I power up, I get to hit three keys before windows starts by default. One key gets me to system recovery, second one to BIOS, third one to a boot menu. Now I wonder if I install RC on the hard drive, will this be added to the boot menu that I mentioned above or some other menu will appear when I power up. You may ask why bother. Just do it and see what happens! I ask because other people use this computer as well and I don't want them to deal with
new menus ....

[jlreich]

I shouldn't add a step to normal booting. Except when you want to boot to the RC. If you already have a boot menu, it will just be added to it. It should leave XP as the default boot item. If it doesn't, it is very easy to edit the boot.ini file in order to make XP the default so it will automatically boot to XP.

[Paul Komski]

If you are using it from the RC.iso you mentioned in another thread then it is a standalone method that runs from the CD you make and doesnt get installed on the HDD; its as if you have used an actual WinXP CD since it contains a slimmed-down version of the i386 folder.

If you install the RC onto the HDD using a WinXP installation CD then it gets added to boot.ini just as jlreich indicated. Since you have a preinstalled version, one would imagine you could add it to the HDD from a borrowed CD - but that is only a guess which shouldn't be too hard to test out. If you want it to always be available you will have to tolerate a boot menu at each startup; but if you set this to 1 sec it wont be too annoying and if you hit the down arrow as soon as you see it then the timeout will freeze.

[Alister]

I hope as jlreich writes, I get it in the existing boot menu with Win XP as the default system. Even though I have an OEM version, the necessary files are on my HDD. I can easily install it.
My other thread on RC.iso is also related to the question here If I could create the image on a CD, then I wouldn't have to install it on my HDD.

Thanks guys. I think the question is answered.