Windows recovery tools

[Mrkvonic]

Hello,

If you ever wondered what you need to do if your Windows goes kaput, here it is; a tutorial presenting a large number of rescue, recovery and repair tools for Windows, inclduing XP and 7, covering topics like fixing MBR, recovery console and its advanced options, bootable live CDs, Linux tools, system imaging and data backup strategy, and more.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/windows-recovery.html

Cheers,
Mrk

[Cudni]

Useful resource. Thank you

[lodore]

there are some extra commands which are useful for the windows bootloader if the bootrec /fixmbr doesnt give you a bootable system
there is bootrec.exe /FixBoot and bootrec.exe /scanos

a useful tip: if you run /fixboot or /scanos and get the error element not found you will need to use diskpart or another partition utility to set the partition you want to boot from as active.
this sometimes happerns if you dualboot and the other operating system you remove was set as active partition.

since alot of oem machines dont come with a windows disc i feel the following links will be useful:
vista recovery disc (http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/)
windows 7 recovery disc (http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/)
While you cannot reinstall windows from the above .iso files you still have access to the recovery options so you can fix the bootloader and other things.

hope this helps improve your article.

[Mrkvonic]

Sounds good, I'll check it out.
Mrk

[tgell]

-{ Quote: "there are some extra commands which are useful for the windows bootloader if the bootrec /fixmbr doesnt give you a bootable system
there is bootrec.exe /FixBoot and bootrec.exe /scanos

a useful tip: if you run /fixboot or /scanos and get the error element not found you will need to use diskpart or another partition utility to set the partition you want to boot from as active.
this sometimes happerns if you dualboot and the other operating system you remove was set as active partition." }-

I found that Gparted is great for changing a partition to active. It's under partition>manage flags. Instead of Active, Gparted calls it Boot.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screens/gparted_11.png

[jnthn]

Nice article. I wonder though if the recovery tools can still be accessed if the 100mb recovery tools partition isn't made, i.e. pre-partition the drive and install Windows 7 on a single partition.

[Mrkvonic]

In that case, I think you need the DVD.
Mrk