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Recovering NT

© Tracey Kirkpatrick-Pritchett

Systems Internals is offering a demo of a neat new utility called ERD Commander, which basically lets you boot to a command line and perform various functions (like Copy and Rename) on all files. The demo demonstrates the less useful functions like CD and DIR. The retail version is $249.

Of course, if you use a FAT-formatted boot drive, you could install DOS to gain access to the boot drive and manipulate files.

But if your boot drive is NTFS-formatted, you have to have a working NT install to access it, making recovering NT more of an issue.

Basic Recovery Options

If you can't boot NT, generally it's because you (or a new program) have added a driver or file, or made a Registry change, that doesn't "agree" with the OS. There might also be a file corruption problem with a system file, or possibly a Registry hive. And of course, there might be a hardware problem (which is beyond the scope of this article).

Finding and fixing the problem should involve either replacing a file on your disk, or editing [possibly restoring] the Registry.

1. Booting "Last Known Good"

   should work for boot problems due to a new driver.

   If you use the Last Known Good, then want your former Registry settings back, it involves Restoring a Previous Current Control Set.

2. Booting the VGA option

   can help with video driver problems, and possibly with determining which, if any, driver is causing the boot problem. It uses a vanilla NT video driver, and the SOS switch, which details which drivers are currently loading.

   If you have the boot "time out" set to 0, and therefore can't select the VGA option, you can go to the Last Known Good menu (by hitting the spacebar) and press F3 to get the NT Loader menu with no timeouts.

3. Installing a Second Copy of NT

   (or having one already installed for emergency purposes) should get you into the system to fix the original installation's problem.

   This option is particularly nice for file management (copying or renaming necessary boot files and system files) and Registry repairs (by loading the Registry hives from your main NT install directory).

   If that doesn't work, or you don't have the disk space available for a second install, or you simply don't have any idea what files or Registry changes might help you boot your original install, having a recent

4. Emergency Repair Disk

   available should at least help you recover enough to get your Registry and necessary boot files back in order (although it's rather time-consuming, and will leave you having to reinstall any Service Packs and hotfixes). Note that the more recent your ERD is, the less re-configuring (and application re-installing) you'll have to do after a restore.