installing the recovery console

[BriGy86]

im told that you can install the recovery console from an XP CD right onto the hard drive and on start up it gives you 2 options to boot from

does anyone do this on all or most of the machines that they build?

or is there anyone that thinks its a good, bad, or waist of time idea?

 

[Smilin]

I think I left it off my home box this last build. It adds a few seconds to your boot time to display the menu, but no biggie. I should get it added, but I keep forgetting 😛

At work it is installed on every single system and I wouldn't have it any other way. The last thing you want to be doing during a server outage is running around rounding up CDs and mass storage drivers.

If you have good physical security for your servers you should also set the security option (under gpedit.msc) to allow access to floppy and cdrom while in recovery console.

So, yes, definately a good idea.

 

[spyordie007]

Yes it's a good idea (if you get in a bind); just like smilin says. I do it on most of my machines.

Besides it certainly doesnt hurt anything. I do suggest knocking down the timeout though, 30 seconds is too long for me.

 

[BriGy86]

ok, i was given instructions on how to do it but im not on my home computer right now, ill post them and let me know if thats all i need

 

[Wyck]

I'd only do it if you expect the CD to be unavailable. Doesn't hurt but doesn't really add a benefit you can't get by just popping the CD in the system on the rare occasion you should need it. Seems like a few minutes of your life you could reinvest in watching a good Anime.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: BriGy86
ok, i was given instructions on how to do it but im not on my home computer right now, ill post them and let me know if thats all i need

Assuming your CDRom is D: here...

Just pop in your XP disc and run, "D:\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons"

Keep in mind that if you are running SP2 and your media is Retail or SP1 you'll have to either put the recovery console on before SP2 or you'll need to slipstream some i386 files and run "winnt32 /cmdcons" from there.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: BriGy86
im told that you can install the recovery console from an XP CD right onto the hard drive and on start up it gives you 2 options to boot from

does anyone do this on all or most of the machines that they build?

or is there anyone that thinks its a good, bad, or waist of time idea?

You could have just asked me why I think it's a good idea, you know :roll:

 

[BriGy86]

i was just wondering, (and thank you by the way for the instructions)

i haven't had time to get around to doing it

also, could i use a dif CD to install the recovery console?

like use my XP pro CD to put it on a friends XP home computer?

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unrelated question, how would i make a bootable XP CD?

my friend bought a sony vaio but it didn't come with the install CD's, just a program to back up his system (basicaly copies everything and puts it back on, programs and all)

is there a way i could make just an basic install CD from his system?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: BriGy86
i was just wondering, (and thank you by the way for the instructions)

i haven't had time to get around to doing it

also, could i use a dif CD to install the recovery console?

like use my XP pro CD to put it on a friends XP home computer?

Yeah, should work. Be sure your friend actually knows his administrator password. Most OEMs ship with some goofy one set for you. If he doesn't know it then RC will do him no good. Note: even if his normal user account is a member of the admins group his password will NOT work. It must be THE builtin administrator

-----------------
unrelated question, how would i make a bootable XP CD?

The XP CD is already bootable.

my friend bought a sony vaio but it didn't come with the install CD's, just a program to back up his system (basicaly copies everything and puts it back on, programs and all)

is there a way i could make just an basic install CD from his system?

[/quote]
You could use ghost or imaging software to take a snapshot of his system right now. Other than that, no.

Your best option with setups like that are to make full backup of the system when new, then discard that backup - OR - reset the archive bits on all files (the idea here is to avoid backing up everything that you already have on the restore CD). From then on, just make a single differential backup every so often.

If you lose the system, you restore with his magic CD then restore the differential backup and you are exactly where you left off.

 

[daveshel]

Yes, but it gives you even more reason to be sure your servers are physically secured.

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: daveshel
Yes, but it gives you even more reason to be sure your servers are physically secured.

The recovery console doesnt give you any more of a reason to ensure your servers are physically secured. If they know your local administrator account password you're already screwed.