For those situations in which the tools and methods available via Safe Mode are not enough to recover from a server failure, Microsoft has provided an additional tool called the Recovery Console. The Recovery Console is a DOS-like command-line interface in which you can perform a limited set of commands and start and stop system services. Unlike booting from a DOS disk, the Recovery Console allows you access to files on an NTFS formatted volume. The Recovery Console is not installed by default; you must install it manually after you have installed Windows 2000. To install the Recovery Console:
The Recovery Console option is added to the Windows 2000 Boot menu as shown in Figure 5.17. Figure 5.17. Windows 2000 Boot menu showing the addition of the Recovery Console.
If your system fails and you don't have the Recovery Console installed, or if you are having startup problems, you can run it from the Windows 2000 CD-ROM or the startup floppies. To run the Recovery Console from a CD-ROM or a floppy, perform the following steps:
After you start the Recovery Console, either from media or by starting from the hard disk, you will be prompted for the operating system number to log on to and the Administrator password, as shown in Figure 5.18. This is not the domain or local Administrator password, but is the Directory Services Restore Mode password that you were prompted to create during the Dcpromo procedure that you used to install Active Directory. Figure 5.18. Windows 2000 Recovery Console showing the logon screen.
After you log on, the following commands are available:
As you can see, the Recovery Console allows you to perform a variety of tasks , such as formatting a drive; copying, deleting, or renaming files; and starting and stopping services. However, there are some limitations:
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