Recovery Console overview

The Windows 2000 Recovery Console is a command-line console that you can start from the Windows 2000 Setup program. Using the Recovery Console, you can start and stop services, format drives, read and write data on a local drive (including drives formatted to use NTFS), and perform many other administrative tasks. The Recovery Console is particularly useful if you need to repair your system by copying a file from a floppy disk or CD-ROM to your hard drive, or if you need to reconfigure a service that is preventing your computer from starting properly. Because the Recovery Console is quite powerful, it should only be used by advanced users who have a thorough knowledge of Windows 2000. In addition, you must be an administrator to use the Recovery Console.

There are two ways to start the Recovery Console:

If you are unable to start your computer, you can run the Recovery Console from your Windows 2000 Setup disks or from the Windows 2000 Professional CD (if you can start your computer from your CD-ROM drive).
As an alternative, you can install the Recovery Console on your computer to make it available in case you are unable to restart Windows 2000. You can then select the Recovery Console option from the list of available operating systems.

After you start the Recovery Console you will have to choose which drive you want to log on to (if you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system) and you will have to log on with your administrator password.

For information on starting and using the Recovery Console, see Related Topics. In addition, if you are using Windows 2000 Professional, see the Windows 2000 Professional Getting Started online book, or the Windows 2000 Professional Getting Started book that came with your Windows 2000 CD. If you are using Windows 2000 Server, see the Disaster Recovery How to section.

Once you are running the Recovery Console, you can get help on the available commands by typing help at the command prompt.