Editing Windows 2000 (section)

=== Recovery Console ===
[[Image:Windows 2000 Recovery Console.png|thumb|The Recovery Console is usually used to recover unbootable systems.]]

{{main|Recovery Console}}

The [[Recovery Console]] is run from outside the installed copy of Windows to perform maintenance tasks that can neither be run from within it nor feasibly be run from another computer or copy of Windows 2000.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 26, 2007 |title=Description of the Windows 2000 Recovery Console |url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229716 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104192800/http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229716 |archive-date=November 4, 2011 |access-date=November 13, 2011 |website=Support.microsoft.com}}</ref> It is usually used to recover the system from problems that cause booting to fail, which would render other tools useless, like Safe Mode or Last Known Good Configuration, or <code>[[chkdsk]]</code>. It includes commands like <code>[[fixmbr]]</code>, which are not present in MS-DOS.

It has a simple [[command-line interface]], used to check and repair the hard drive(s), repair boot information (including [[NTLDR]]), replace corrupted system files with fresh copies from the CD, or enable/disable services and drivers for the next boot.

The console can be accessed in either of the two ways:
# Booting from the Windows 2000 CD, and choosing to start the Recovery Console from the CD itself instead of continuing with setup. The Recovery Console is accessible as long as the installation CD is available.
# Preinstalling the Recovery Console on the hard disk as a startup option in <code>[[Bootsect.dos|Boot.ini]]</code>, via WinNT32.exe, with the /cmdcons switch.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 26, 2007 |title=How to install the Windows Recovery Console |url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216417 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111116082007/http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216417 |archive-date=November 16, 2011 |access-date=November 13, 2011 |website=Support.microsoft.com}}</ref> In this case, it can only be started as long as [[NTLDR]] can boot from the [[System partition and boot partition|system partition]].