Copying files from failed Win2k Pro with Recovery Console

I want to be able to copy files from the hard drive of a failed Professional workstation. The Recovery Console only lets me copy files TO the hard drive. Do I need a third-party utility?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

Nope, you can use the standard recovery console for this but you'll need to make a security policy change. You can change the policy locally at the desktop or with a group policy at the Site, Domain, or OU level if you have a Windows 2000 domain. I'll use the local policy for an example:

First, open the local security policy editor via Start | Program | Administrative Tools | Local Security Policy.

(NOTE: You may need to enable viewing of Administrative Tools by right-clicking the status bar and selecting Properties, then selecting the Advanced tab, then setting the Display Administrative Tools option.)

Drill down to Local Policies | Security Options.

Enable the "Recovery Console: Allow floppy copy and access to all drives and folders" policy.

Close the policy editor.

Restart the machine and boot to the Setup CD. Select [R] - Repair and choose the Recovery Console option.

(NOTE: Alternatively, you can install the recovery console files on the hard drive by running "winnt32 /cmdcons" from the I386 directory on the Setup CD. Once this is done, you can boot to the recovery console as a regular boot option.)

When prompted, select the partition that holds the Windows 2000 installation then log onto the console using the local Administrator password. (For domain controllers, this would be the password you entered during DCPROMO.)

At the command prompt, enter the following SET command: SET ALLOWREMOVEABLEMEDIA = TRUE

At this point, you'll be able to copy files from the hard drive to the floppy. There are a couple of other handy SET commands you can enable at this point, as well.

ALLOWALLPATHS = TRUE: Permits you to browse every directory on all hard drives. By default, the console restricts you to the root and system folders.

ALLOWWILDCARDS = TRUE: Permits you to use wildcards (eg: dir *.bat). By default, wildcards are not permitted.

 

NOCOPYPROMPT = TRUE: Overwrites an existing file without prompting for permission. This is probably not an option you would select.

This was first published in January 2001

Join the conversationComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.
    Back to top