Chapter 15 PC Troubleshooting 651
Recovery Console looks very much like the Windows command interpreter,
but it is not the same. Recovery Console is not installed by default. Unless the
computer system has been previously configured to run Recovery Console
from the hard disk drive, you must use the installation CD to start the Recovery
Console. To do this, insert the installation CD into a bootable CD-ROM drive. You
may need to configure the BIOS settings to allow the CD-ROM drive to be the
first device in the boot sequence.
When the PC boots to the installation program, select R to repair the system
and C to enter Recovery Console. Selecting R will command the Recovery
Console to perform an automatic recovery of the system similar to the
Last
known good configuration
option. Choosing C displays the Recovery Console
command prompt. You can issue commands from the command prompt or
copy a missing file from a floppy disk to the operating system directory. The
Recovery Console is a last resort utility and should only be used by technicians
with advanced troubleshooting experience. Windows Vista has redesigned the
Recovery Console into a much more sophisticated utility called the Windows
Recovery Environment. It is discussed in the following section.
Windows Recovery Environment
The Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a vast improvement over
earlier startup repair utilities developed by Microsoft for their operating systems.
It is launched by booting to the Windows Vista installation DVD. A dialog box
will prompt you to select the keyboard layout and regional preferences, such as
language. The next screen presents an option to perform a system repair and
looks similar to that in Figure 15-9.
Figure 15-7.
Several restore points
may be available in
a single day. These
include scheduled
restore points created
by the computer and
restore points created
by the user.