When dealing with a Blue Screen of Death at boot - the first option should be to boot into Safe Mode (press F8 during bootup).
Some hardware failures are so severe they prevent booting into Safe Mode.
The recovery console allows an alternative boot option giving a limited command prompt - this can be used to disable services or replace system files until you are able to boot into safe mode.
Recovery Console commands: ATTRIB Change file attributes BATCH Execute a batch file CD Change directory CHKDSK Check Disk CLS Clear screen COPY Copy files* DEL Delete Files* DIR Directory listing DISABLE Disable Service DISKPART Create or delete disk Partitions (like running setup) ENABLE Enable Service EXIT Quit the recovery console and reboot EXPAND FIXBOOT Write a new boot sector to the system partition FIXMBR Repair the Master boot Record FORMAT FORMAT drive /FS:NTFS HELP LISTSVC List all services and drivers LOGON Logon as administrator (local) MAP List local physical drive mappings MAP arc List local physical drive mappings(ARC path) MD Make Directory* MORE RD Remove Directory* REN Rename file* SYSTEMROOT Set the current directory to be %Systemroot% * File operations are only possible on: system directories, floppy drive(removable media), Root directories, local install sources. You can copy FROM but not TO a floppy disk.
Installation:
The recovery console is not installed by default, from
the install CD use the command:
D:\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons
Then restart the machine.
“When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive” - Alan Paton
Related:
SC - Service Control
WinMSD - List running services
Q326215 -
Recovery console Windows 2003
Q314058 -
Recovery console Windows XP
Q308402 - Recovery
Console and Sysprep
Q307654 - install and use the Recovery Console XP
Q812450 - Program Files Are Missing or Damaged
Q330184 - Invalid Boot.ini / Hal.dll error message
Q816579 - Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows Server 2003
List of Windows Services
Repair Win XP from the Recovery Console - InformationWeek
Recovery
Console renders XP passwords useless
