System Restore in Recovery Console

Hey guys. I have a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop running Vista. A few months ago the computer was updated to SP1, and after the update and reboot, the computer would no longer start. It will pass the POST screen and the Microsoft Corporation logo with progress bar will show, but it will not launch the OS. I have tried to start in safe mode, no dice, I have tried the GUI mode system restore through the Recovery Tools option, but it won't finalize. My next step before I wipe it and start fresh (which I would like to avoid), is to try System Restore thorugh the Recovery Console (w/command prompt). I followed the directions from the MSKB site (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545), but for some reason when I get to this step:

copy f:\windows\repair\system f:\windows\system32\config\system

It tells me it can't find the file. I have searched for the Repair directory manually and can't find it. And ideas? Thanks!

 

I have to say I have rarely seen anyone complete those instructions and have success.

As far as I know they are for XP only, not Vista.

You could try the dir command to see what files are in the repair folder. dir f:\windows\repair

 

Yeah I hear ya... The folder actually isn't even there on this particular installation. I've done it a few times before with XP and it worked pretty good. This is the first time with Vista though.

 

I don't know if this would help. http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

I think I have seen a direct download rather than torrent download somewhere but you'd have to google for it.

 

One other thing that is bothering me is why you are using F: Is the drive hooked up to a PC? It would be very unusual for a laptop to have a Windows installation on a F: partition.

 

Sorry my bad. It's the C:. Everything else is accurate in my post though lol

 

Here's another interesting little tidbit... Up until now, one thing I didn't mention, is that as far as recovery options I've tried like startup repair and system restore, I've been using the System Recovery Options menu. I have been logging in under one of the individual user names as opposed to Administrator. When I try to log in under administrator it tells me that my account has been disabled. Not sure if that makes a difference or not...

 

Vista does not have the repair folder.

You can do a system restore from the installation disk though, if any points are available.

Boot from the Vista DVD
Choose repair my computer at the install screen (bottom left very small)
System Restore is one of the options.

Alternatively some pcs will boot to the repair console, without the disk, by hitting F2 then F8 at boot.

You can also manually hook the drive up to another pc and manually replace the registry. The hives are in the System Volume Information folder.
However to do this you have to fight the new Vista security measure to take ownership of the hive from the 'trusted installed'.

Yes the (hidden) Adminstrator account is disabled by default in Vista. To enable it go to a command prompt in your console and type in

Net user administrator /active:yes

 

Yep... tried startup repair and system recovery from the 'disc' (mine is actually on the HDD but it's the same utility). Startupi repair says it cannot fix the problem, and system recovery goes through the motions but gets hung up of "Finalizing File Restore"

 

What actually happens at boot?

Do you have the famous black screen of death, (KSOD) after the initial Microsoft progress bar, perhaps with a working mouse pointer.

 

If I allow it to boot normally (no F8 etc...) it will display the MS progress bar then eventually go black and either stay that way.... or a black screen with a single line will start scrolling through various files until it freezes.

 

Of course if you have forced shutdwon a few times you probably have some corrupt files.

You just may fix it by running Check Disk from the recovery console command prompt.

 

Outstanding! K everything's working good now. Here's what happened... I was unable to log into the recovery options utility under administrator so I was logging in under one of the 3 different account set up. Under this account the system restore fuction was working, but freezing on "Finalizing File Restore". I logged into the recovery options menu using one of the other user accounts and when I went to run the system restore it told me the drive had errors. I fixed them, rebooted, ran system restore again, and voila. Thanks for all the help dude!

 

Glad it worked for you. I would still be interested in what you saw after the microsoft progress bar at Vista boot?

If you set the Administarator active and now want to unset it repeat the command with

net user administrator /active:no

 

If I allowed it to boot normally (no F8 etc...) it would have displayed the MS progress bar then eventually gone black and either stayed that way.... or a black screen with a single line would have started scrolling through various files until it froze.

 

I thought so.

You may find this of interest, as there is as yet no certain fix for this.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977675/

I still accuse hibernation ( having seen so many hinernation cause problems), which is on by default in Vista.


In fact you can only turn it off from a command prompt.

powercfg.exe /hibernate on

powercfg.exe /hibernate off

 

That's good to know. Thanks! Do you mean the hibernation settings in 'Power Management'?

 

No I said you can't turn it off in power management.

 

Oh ok.... so what exactly do you mean when you'r referring to hibernation then? I'm only familiar with the options in PM.

 

The purpose of hibernation is to reduce boot time. It is not the same as sleep mode where the pc is not actually shut down.

The entire memory and settings are dumped to a file (hiberfil.sys) at shut down or after a set time on not being used. then the machine shuts down.
When you restart it is all put back exactly as it was at shutdown.

The problem is hiberfil.sys is a very large file so the potential for corruption is large. Also if a laptop just runs out of gas too quickly or the elctric fails on a desktop again file cirruption occurs.

Then you can't start the pc.

With XP you could turn hibernation on / off from the power settings, but this option was removed in Vista and these settings given fancy sounding names.

 

So you think it would be beneficial for me to disbale the hibernation function?

 

I try to persuade every client not to use hibernation on any version of Windows. Sooner or later those that don't regret it to their cost.

So yes disembowel it by all means.

 

Alright, sounds good.