How to access the Recovery Console
The Recovery Console is a set of tools which run from a Command prompt. If your system is formatted as NTFS then these tools can help you manage the partition. You can learn more about the Recovery Console through Help and Support
To run the Recovery Console from CD boot with the Windows XP CD (or with the optional 6 floppy disk set) and select "R" at the Welcome Screen.
The screen will switch to black and you will be asked which installation to log on to. If you only have one installation you will press "1". Remember that numlock is off at this time.
Next you'll be prompted to enter your Admin password. By default it is created blank so just press Enter.
At the C:\Windows command prompt type "Help" for a list of commands you can use.
How to Repair the Boot Sector:
If XP won't start it may be due to a damaged boot sector or a missing or corrupt ntldr or ntdetect.com files.
To replace damaged ntldr and ntdetect.com you can copy fresh files from the XP CD using the COPY command. Boot with the XP CD and enter the Recovery Console (as above). At the Command Prompt type the following (where "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter) allowing the files to overwrite the old files
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:
To repair a damaged Boot Sector at the command prompt type FIXBOOT and press Enter. Then answer "Y" ..
How to repair bad Cluster (Blue Screen Of Death)
use this command : Chkdsk c: p and Chkdsk c: r
format drive : /Q /FS:file-system
Use the above command (where /Q performs a quick format of the drive, drive is the drive letter of the partition to format /FS:file-system specifies the type of file system to use [FAT, FAT32, or NTFS]) to format the specified drive to the specified file system. For example the following quick formats C partition as NTFS
FORMAT C: /Q /FS:NTFS
the following will do a full format of C as FAT32
FORMAT C: /FS:FAT32
*** Note: If a file system is not specified, then the existing file system format is retained.
Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart your Computer
