ERD Commander version 1.03 User's Guide Winternals Software LP 3101 Bee Caves Road, Suite 150 Austin, Texas 78746 (512) 330-9130 (512) 330-9131 Fax www.winternals.com Copyright © 1999 Winternals Software LP ERD Commander Version 1.03 Table of Contents 1 Introduction................................................................................... 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 ERD Commander Functionality......................................................1 Upgrading to ERD Commander Professional .................................1 Overview of Use.............................................................................2 Requirements ................................................................................4 Creating the Boot Diskettes ...........................................................4 ERD Commander for the DEC Alpha Edition .................................5 Adding Third-Party Drivers.............................................................5 Booting Up .....................................................................................7 Sample Screen ..............................................................................7 Overview........................................................................................8 Command-line Editing....................................................................9 ACCESS ......................................................................................12 ATTRIB........................................................................................13 CD/CHDIR ...................................................................................13 CLS..............................................................................................13 COPY ..........................................................................................14 DEL/ERASE.................................................................................14 DIR ..............................................................................................15 EXIT/QUIT ...................................................................................16 HELP ...........................................................................................16 MAP.............................................................................................17 MKDIR/MD...................................................................................18 MORE/TYPE................................................................................18 MOVE ..........................................................................................18 RENAME/REN .............................................................................19 RMDIR/RD...................................................................................19 VERSION/VER ............................................................................19 XCOPY ........................................................................................20 2 ERD Commander Setup ............................................................... 4 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3 Starting ERD Commander ........................................................... 7 3.1 3.2 4 The Command-line Environment ................................................ 8 4.1 4.2 5 The Command Set ...................................................................... 10 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 6 7 Troubleshooting ......................................................................... 21 Technical Support ...................................................................... 24 Winternals Software LP Page i ERD Commander Version 1.03 1 Introduction Welcome to ERD Commander, the advanced system utility that finally brings boot-floppy functionality to Windows NT. When problems arise in Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 that render a system unbootable, there is always the possibility of booting off of a DOS floppy disk so that the drives of the machine can be accessed for repair and salvage. In the past, Windows NT administrators have gone without this recovery option. 1.1 ERD Commander Functionality ERD Commander enables you to boot NT off of a floppy disk in order to access and repair a dead NT installation. It is a command-line shell that runs off of a set of NT boot disks giving you full access to non-bootable NT systems with a robust set of familiar command-line file manipulation tools. Because ERD Commander relies on a standard set of NT boot floppies, any NT system is accessible, and because ERD Commander runs on top of NT, all NT file systems, including FAT, NTFS, and CDFS are visible. ERD Commander has no reliance on data located on a system's hard disk for it to boot and run ­ NT is actually booted on the floppies. Windows NT does not even have to be present on the computer in order to use ERD Commander to access the computer's drives. 1.2 Upgrading to ERD Commander Professional ERD Commander Professional Edition augments the basic set of ERD Commander functions with advanced features and additional commands. These include: = Support for fault-tolerant drives (striped sets, volume sets, and mirrors) = Allows replacement of lost administrative passwords with the PASSWORD command = Supports the CHKDSK command for repairing corrupted drives Winternals Software LP Page 1 ERD Commander Version 1.03 = Allows Device and Service startup options to be reconfigured in the registry (Boot, System, Automatic, Manual, or Disabled) in order to enable/disable defective drivers = Built in FAT32 support = Built in EXPAND functionality for decompressing and copying files from the NT Installation CD-ROM, or restoring backup registry hives created by RDISK An upgrade is available for registered users of ERD Commander to ERD Commander Professional. 1.3 Overview of Use ERD Commander can be used as a tool in solving problems such as: Removing or Replacing Buggy Drivers You can use ERD Commander to delete the image files of drivers or services that, because of a bug or misconfiguration, prevent NT from booting. Updating Out-of-Date System Files Incorrectly applying service packs or system software updates can cause system DLLs to become out of sync with each other, preventing NT from booting successfully. ERD Commander can copy up-to-date versions of old files from floppy disks or CD-ROMs onto a system. Correcting Misconfigured NTFS Security If security attributes that are too restrictive are applied to certain system files or directories on NTFS boot drives, NT will become unbootable. ERD Commander includes a special command, ACCESS, which unlocks otherwise inaccessible files or directories. Updating Locked Files Once NT is up-and-running many system files cannot be replaced because the system keeps them locked. ERD Commander makes it possible to update such files because it runs when NT is off-line. Winternals Software LP Page 2 ERD Commander Version 1.03 Correcting Registry Problems A number of NT boot problems are the result of misconfigured Registry values. With ERD Commander you can copy Registry hives (located under \system32\config) off the system to a floppy disk or other writeable removable media for modification on another NT machine (using Regedt32's Hive loading capability). Modified hives can then be copied back. Copying Important Files off of a Dead System ERD Commander enables you to access files on an NT system that fails to boot. Important files can be salvaged onto a floppy disk or other removable media. Note that ERD Commander is not intended to resolve disk corruption errors, and that only drives that are consistent enough to be recognized by Windows NT file systems will be accessible with ERD Commander. Winternals Software LP Page 3 ERD Commander Version 1.03 2 ERD Commander Setup 2.1 Requirements ERD Commander requires the Microsoft Windows NT© 4.0 installation CDROM to create a set of boot diskettes. The disks can be used to access both NT 4.0 and 3.51 systems. You will need three blank floppy diskettes. Optionally, you can supply an existing set of Windows NT Setup diskettes, which ERD Commander will modify. Please note that such modification is permanent; you will not be able to reinstall NT from those disks in the future. Additionally, you must have local administrator access to the machine on which you are installing ERD Commander. 2.2 Creating the Boot Diskettes When the ERD Commander Setup program is executed, it will allow you to create a set of Windows NT boot floppies configured with ERD Commander. You will be prompted for the Microsoft Windows NT© 4.0 Installation CD-ROM and for the three floppy diskettes. The Setup program will install two versions of the boot floppy creator onto your hard drive. The 32­bit version is the program that is run during the initial Setup. The 16­bit version allows you to configure boot floppies with ERD Commander from a DOS boot floppy or from Windows 3.1. This is necessary in cases where your Windows NT installation is non­bootable and you do not have access to a second NT machine or to Windows 95. Winternals Software LP Page 4 ERD Commander Version 1.03 2.3 ERD Commander for the DEC Alpha Edition The ERD Commander Setup program will allow you to create a set of Alpha NT boot floppies that are configured with ERD Commander. The Setup program will also allow you to install the ERD Commander boot files into a directory on a hard drive or removable media. Follow your ARC OS loader instructions to initiate a boot of ERD Commander, specifying "SETUPLDR" as the boot file. Most ARC OS loaders accept the command "A:SETUPLDR" for booting off a floppy. After the installation has completed you can run the Setup program from the ERD Commander program group to create additional sets of diskette sets. Portions of Alpha NT boot disk creation copyright BEI, makers of UltraBac backup software for Windows NT (http://www.ultrabac.com). 2.4 Adding Third-Party Drivers Some systems have non-standard SCSI disk drives that require third-party drivers to function under Windows NT. A set of ERD Commander boot diskettes will not prompt you to specify such drivers like the standard Windows NT boot diskettes do. However, it is possible to add third-party SCSI device drivers to ERD Commander boot diskettes by following the procedure outlined below. Note that this is not a supported option, but presented here for your convenience. Copy the driver(s) to floppy #3 and edit the txtsetup.sif file, which located on floppy #1. Add a line for each driver in the following three sections: 1. Under the [SourceDisksFiles] heading: oemdrvr.sys = 1,,,,,,_3,4,1 2. Under the [SCSI.Load] heading oemdrvr = oemdrvr.sys,4 Winternals Software LP Page 5 ERD Commander Version 1.03 3. Under the [SCSI] heading oemdrvr = "HAL 9000 SCSI Host Adapter" Enter as shown above, replacing "oemdrvr" with the name of the third-party driver that you need to add. The format should match that of other entries in each section. Winternals Software LP Page 6 ERD Commander Version 1.03 3 Starting ERD Commander 3.1 Booting Up After the disks are loaded, a stripped­down version of Windows NT will start, displaying the familiar boot­time Blue Screen that presents the NT version number, system memory size, and number of processors present. ERD Commander then starts automatically and enters a command­line environment nearly identical to the one NT implements in Command­Prompt. 3.2 Sample Screen Figure 3-1 is a presentation of what a typical display looks like after ERD Commander has started. ERD Commander presents information on the disk drives that are recognized and the drive letters it has assigned for them. Volume name, file system type, and drive size data should help you identify particular drives. (Note that this information can be reproduced with the MAP command while using ERD Commander.) Microsoft (R) Windows NT (TM) Version 4.Ø 1 System Processor [128 MB Memory] ERD Commander v1.Ø Copyright (C) 1998 Winternals Software LLC http://www.winternals.com Drive letter mappings: A: \Device\FloppyØ\ C: \Device\HarddiskØ\Partition1\ D: \Device\HarddiskØ\Partition2\ E: \Device\HarddiskØ\Partition3\ F: \Device\HarddiskØ\Partition4\ G: \Device\CdromØ\ C:\> FAT FAT NTFS FAT NTFS CDFS WINDOWS WINNT SRC TEST 1Ø15744 2Ø56ØØ 87Ø64Ø 2Ø128 KB KB KB KB Figure 3-1 Winternals Software LP Page 7 ERD Commander Version 1.03 4 The Command-line Environment 4.1 Overview ERD Commander has a sophisticated command-line processor and it implements a large subset of NT's command-line command set, complete with all standard file-related commands. The environment mirrors the standard NT command-line environment so that using ERD Commander is intuitive ­ if you're familiar with the commands and command-line editing capabilities present in NT, then you already know how to use ERD Commander. The command-processor's editing featu ...