There are three ways to enter the Recovery Console:

1. Use the set of Setup Diskettes (4 floppies) for Install.
   This method is painfully slow. But, simplest to operate.
2. Use the original install CD-ROM and run /I386/WINNT.EXE (from DOS), or /I386/WINNT32.EXE (from Windows). If the Install CD is a bootable CD and your BIOS supports booting from the CD, this is faster. Even if your system cannot boot from the CD, if you have a Win9x Emergency Disk, it lets you configure a DOS environment with CD access so that you can launch the WINNT.EXE or WINNT32.EXE.

   Note, entering the Recovery Console uses the same setup procedure which is also used for a fresh WinNT/2000/XP install. Be assured that you will be given a menu to enter the Recovery Console instead of re-installing the whole OS from scratch.

3. Use the files in the C:\CMDCONS (hidden) directory which can be set up on your hard disk (while you have a healthy Win2000). As one of the boot options in the menu which are shown from entries in BOOT.INI, you can simply select the Recovery Console option at the boot up time. This is the quickest method of all. A techniquetested only with Win2000 --- but not with NT4.

The 3rd option is the most convenient method. Basically, all of the three alternatives use exactly the same set of files --- the difference is where these files are loaded from. In the third case, it consumes about 7 MB of disk space which is not much, today. Even in rare instances where your system fails to go far enough to show you the boot menu, you can use the Quick Boot Diskette to load the files in the C:\CMDCONS directory.

The Recovery Console setup procedure modifies the BOOT.INI file with an appropriate entryfor the Recovery Console option.
Edit the BOOT.INI file in your Quick Boot Diskette by looking at the newly modified C:\BOOT.INI file on your hard disk. The line should look like the following:

C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="MS Win2000 Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Once you are in the Recovery Console, it is like the DOS world (many familiar commands such as DIR, MKDIR, CHDIR, COPY, are there). The long filename is also supported. You can even invoke a batch file (using a different syntax).