Re: Recovery Console - dir and cd commands say "The path or file specified is not valid". Why?

From: Nepatsfan (nepatsfan_at_SBXXXIX.com)
Date: 03/14/05 

Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 17:19:06 -0500

Sorry, hit the send button a little early there.

Finishing that thought, I can't vouch for whether you can use the
procedure detailed in the MS article (KB307545) to restore the
registry while booted from the CD. 

-- 
Nepatsfan
"Nepatsfan" <nepatsfan@SBXXXIX.com> wrote in message news:...
> Depending on how badly you need to preserve the data on your 
> hard
> drive and how much heavy lifting you're willing to do you might
> want to consider the following:
>
> Create a bootable CD by following the procedure detailed on one
> of the following sites:
>
> Ultimate Boot CD:
> http://www.ubcd4win.com/
> Knoppix:
> http://www.knoppix.org/
> Bart's PE:
> http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
>
> If at all possible, try to make the UBCD. I think you'll find
> that it's worth the extra effort.
>
> Change the boot order in you BIOS to boot from the CD drive. 
> Once
> you've got the machine booted, I'd start by backing up as much 
> of
> your old data as possible to CD's. It sounds as if your HD is
> about to go south.
>
> Once you've got your data backed up you can do a little
> troubleshooting. You might find the disk diagnostic tools 
> helpful. I've never had to use the registry editing tools so 
> you're on your own there. I also can't vouch for
>
>
>
> -- 
> Nepatsfan
> "Phil Addison" <phil_a@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:03hb31dl876d27na7tudnu8pqnsrle9jfh@4ax.com...
>> [I asked already in
>> microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support, without
>> a solution, so am cross-posting. Hope someone here knows the
>> answer -
>> thanks.]
>>
>> I have a Dell Latitude CPt C333GT loaded with XP Pro which 
>> will
>> not
>> complete booting from the HDD.
>>
>> From power up I get the usual boot menu with "Safe", "Safe +
>> network",
>> "Safe + Command prompt", "Last known good configuration", And
>> "Start
>> windows normally".
>>
>> Choosing "Start windows normally" produces:
>>
>> XP splash screen for a few seconds then a blank screen for
>> about 5
>> minutes during which the HDD is making repetitive sounds. That
>> finishes
>> with a blue screen saying:
>> "STOP: c0000218 Unknown Hard Error
>> Dumping physical memory to disk: nn" (where nn counts up).
>> After some 10s of seconds the machine re-boots and the cycle
>> starts
>> again.
>>
>> Booting into "Safe Mode" I get:
>> XP splash screen for a few seconds then a list of drivers 
>> being
>> loaded.
>> The last few in the list are:
>>
>> multi(0)disk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers\ACPI.sys,
>> WMILIB,
>> pci, isapnp, compbatt, BATTC, intelide, PCIIDEX, pcmcia,
>> MountMgr,
>> ftdisk, PartMgr, VolSnap, atapi, disk, CLASSPNP, sr, KsecDD
>> Ntfs, NDIS,
>> Mup, agp440.sys.
>>
>> These all have ".sys" extensions, and the list ends with
>> "agp440.sys".
>> At this point the disk is repetitively cycling, and the above
>> list
>> remains on the screen. After about 3 minutes I get a blue
>> screen saying
>>
>> "STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
>> The registry cannot load the hive (file):
>> \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SECURITY or its log or alternate.
>> It is
>> corrupt, absent, or not writable.
>> Dumping physical memory to disk: nn"
>>
>> After some 1/2 minute or so the machine re-boots, and the same
>> happens
>> again.
>>
>> I found a KB article that indicates the problem is corrupted
>> registry
>> hives: "How to troubleshoot a Stop 0xC0000218 error"
>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314874. This article refers to
>> "How to
>> recover from a corrupted registry"
>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545, which explains how to
>> use the
>> Recovery Console to restore the hives.
>>
>> So far so good, and can I load the Recovery Console from an XP
>> Pro CD.
>>
>> I immediately hit a snag in that the commands I need are all
>> disabled.
>>
>> In particular DIR, CD, MD will not run, so I cannot do 
>> anything
>> useful.
>> These commands respond with "The path or file specified is not
>> valid".
>>
>> Also the 307545 article says I should see an administrator
>> password
>> dialog, but I am getting straight into the recovery console
>> without
>> seeing that.
>>
>> I currently have a C:\Windows> prompt, but cannot navigate at
>> all
>> because of the disabled dir, etc, commands.
>>
>> System restore from start-up does not work, so I do need to be
>> able to
>> restore the registry files manually.
>>
>> I can also boot into 'setup' from an XP Pro CD and could do a
>> repair
>> installation, but only want to try that as a last resort,
>> because of the
>> risks of upsetting application settings.
>>
>> Any ideas please?
>>
>> Phil
>
>
>