I Need a Recovery Console!

[bulldawg1979]

Trying to help out a family member whose computer has crashed. It is a Compaq desktop that came with Recovery CDs, that I assume are just images of the machines state when it left the manufacturer. Naturally, the user doesn't want to lose all of his data, so I need WinXP's Recovery Console to see if I can disable some services, etc. and, maybe, get the system running. I've tried to call Compaq for information, but sounds like they can't help.

The system had Norton GoBack installed, but reverting to a previous time doesn't solve the problem. Tried Safe Mode. Tried Last Known Good Config, no help. There is an endless loop where GoBack says it must reboot the system to protect it from a major crash.

The crash occurred after the following sequence of events. Turned on his Grisoft AVG antivirus ( it wasn't running for some reason). Ran Lavasoft Ad-Aware Antispyware (which detected over 100 items, including win32.Welchia.B), removed all items detected. Tried to run Spybot Search & Destroy and was blocked by Zone Alarm firewall (I suppose, though installed, it had never been used, so the ZA permissions had not been granted). As I was doing all of this remotely, and the family member was not available to disable Zone Alarm, I was stuck with the ZA alert message showing and no way to get rid of it, as a remote user (LogMeIn IT Reach software). So, I decided to reboot the system which resulted in its present trashed condition. Of course, despite the user's lack of protection and knowledge of how to do basic system maintenance, I feel responsible for his current computer crash. He is in his 70's, lives alone, and uses his computer a lot.

I'm no expert, just trying to help someone out and causing more problems than I've helped. Can anyone give me some good advice. I need to go to his house, several miles away, and get his system going, but I hope I can, first, find a way to repair it, instead of reverting it to its original setup. Is it possible to use the Recovery Console from a WinXP CD that goes with one of my machines?

Thanks!

 

[smashp]

yes you can use any Xp cd to get to the recovery console.

the bad news is Norton may own the disk

in the recovery console run chkdsk /f

as a last resort run fixmbr

 

[bulldawg1979]

Originally posted by: smashp
yes you can use any Xp cd to get to the recovery console.

the bad news is Norton may own the disk

in the recovery console run chkdsk /f

as a last resort run fixmbr

What do you mean by "Norton may own the disk." Glad to hear that I can use the Recovery Console from one of my WinXP CDs. Would it be worthwhile to use the console to disable services, such as ZA, Spybot, Search and Destroy, etc. ?

 

[Smilin]

You can use recovery console from and XP, 2k or 2003 CD. You can also download setup diskettes (slow..yuck!) from MS.

Any of them will work.

 

[smashp]

Originally posted by: bulldawg1979

Originally posted by: smashp
yes you can use any Xp cd to get to the recovery console.

the bad news is Norton may own the disk

in the recovery console run chkdsk /f

as a last resort run fixmbr

What do you mean by "Norton may own the disk." Glad to hear that I can use the Recovery Console from one of my WinXP CDs. Would it be worthwhile to use the console to disable services, such as ZA, Spybot, Search and Destroy, etc. ?

norton loads its garbage first and then the OS loads. Imagine it kind of like a bootloader in linux.

if you run the fixmbr cmd from the recovery console it shoul bypass goback completly.

just do it at your own risk.

 

[TechnoPro]

BartPE or Knoppix can be life savers from a data recovery standpoint.

 

[timswim78]

Here are my two cents:

Pull that hard disk outta there and open it up in a working computer. Pull off all the files that the user needs. Put the disk back into the person's computer and do a restore from the CD's.

 

[bulldawg1979]

Originally posted by: timswim78
Here are my two cents:

Pull that hard disk outta there and open it up in a working computer. Pull off all the files that the user needs. Put the disk back into the person's computer and do a restore from the CD's.

I like your two cents. Sounds like the game plan to me. I'm on my way to his house this morning to save his data and change roles from villan who trashed his system to superhero data saver (I hope). Thanks for the advice.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: smashp
yes you can use any Xp cd to get to the recovery console.
the bad news is Norton may own the disk
in the recovery console run chkdsk /f
as a last resort run fixmbr

Interestingly, I had to do that recently, and CHKDSK does not offer an "/F" option from the Recovery Console. Curious, I thought.

 

[P0ldy]

Yep, use a Linux live cd. It'll give you a GUI instead of a weak CLI from recovery console.

 

[smashp]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: smashp
yes you can use any Xp cd to get to the recovery console.
the bad news is Norton may own the disk
in the recovery console run chkdsk /f
as a last resort run fixmbr

Interestingly, I had to do that recently, and CHKDSK does not offer an "/F" option from the Recovery Console. Curious, I thought.

chkdsk

Syntax

chkdsk [volume:][[Path] FileName] [/f] [/v] [/r] [/x] [/i] [/c] [/l[:size]]