NTRecover User’s Guide Winternals Software LP 3101 Bee Caves Road, Suite 150 Austin, Texas 78746 (512) 330-9130 (512) 330-9131 Fax www.winternals.
NTRecover Table of Contents 1 Introduction................................................................................... 1 2 Overview of Use............................................................................ 2 3 Establishing Communications Parameters................................ 3 4 Creating a Client Boot Floppy ..................................................... 4 4.1 4.2 Using a MS-DOS Boot Floppy........................................................
NTRecover 1 Introduction NTRecover is an advanced Windows NT/2000© dead-system recovery utility. Windows NT/2000 machines that fail to boot because of data corruption, improperly installed software or hardware, or faulty configuration, can be accessed and recovered using standard administrative tools, such as CHKDSK, with NTRecover.
NTRecover 2 Overview of Use The following steps are required for NTRecover operation.
NTRecover 3 Establishing Communications Parameters The first step in using NTRecover is determining which serial ports on the host and client machines are to be connected via the null-modem serial cable. This involves picking a free serial port connection on each computer, and ascertaining whether it is serial port 1, 2, 3, or 4. Refer to your computer’s hardware reference manual for help in this determination.
NTRecover 4 Creating a Client Boot Floppy NTRecover client operation requires that you make a client boot disk for the client computer. This is accomplished through the NTRecover connection dialog [figure 4-1], which is the first window presented whenever NTRecover is executed on the host machine. Figure 4-1 4.
NTRecover To execute the client from this setup, you must boot the client computer from the MS-DOS disk, ensuring that the drivers are appropriately installed (via entries in the disk’s CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files), and then invoke the client with the command, “client”. Note that in some cases the client computer’s BIOS may have floppy-boot capability disabled, so you may have to configure the client’s BIOS to allow for booting from the floppy drive. Figure 4-2 4.
NTRecover 5 Establishing a Communications Link A communications link can be established between the host and the client after the following: ♦= Serial ports through which the connection will be made on the host and client have been selected and identified ♦= A communications baud rate has been chosen ♦= The host and client have been connected with a null-modem serial cable ♦= The communications parameters have been entered into the connection dialog on the host, and the client software on the client machin
NTRecover 6 Using NT Recover: Host 6.1 The Connection Dialog The connection dialog [Figure 6-1] is the first window presented when the host software, NTRecover, is executed. This dialog is used to create the client boot disk, specify host communications parameters, and establish a connection. Figure 6-1 6.1.1 Drive Letter This is an optional entry that is used to indicate which drive letter NTRecover should begin with when it assigns drive letters to client drives it maps onto the host.
NTRecover Refer to your computer’s hardware manual for the correspondence between I/O port numbers that are used by the applet, and serial connections on the back of the computer. 6.1.3 Baud Rate Specify the communications rate that is to be used between the host and the client.
NTRecover particular client drive. Use the drives pull-down list to choose which drive to watch, with ‘*’ representing all the drives. The menu can also be used to see which of the host drive letters map client drives. Figure 6-2 The statistics presented include the total number of reads and writes, as well as the number of bytes read or written. For your reference, the serial port and baud rate of the connection are also displayed.
NTRecover 6.2.2 Unmount The only button unique to the Statistics Dialog window is the UNMOUNT button. When you have finished accessing a client drive, use the UNMOUNT button to disconnect from it. After the client connection has been terminated and the mapped client drives have been unmapped, control returns to the main connection dialog.
NTRecover 7 Using NT Recover: Client 7.1 Starting the Client Before the host is directed to mount client drives, it is recommended (although not necessary) that the client software be started on the client machine. This means booting off of the boot floppy, and executing the client program, CLIENT.COM, if the floppy is a DOS boot floppy. The client must be told the selected communications parameters. Note that the baud rate on the host and client must be identical.
NTRecover 7.2 The Connection Screen The client connection dialog [Figure 7-1] is similar to the host connection dialog in its functionality. Use the arrow keys to move the selection cursor from entry to entry. Left and right arrow keys move it horizontally from selection to selection. Figure 7-1 7.2.1 The Comm Port physical serial communications port NTRecover will use for communications on the client is selected with this menu.
NTRecover 7.2.2 Baud Rate Specify the communications rate that is to be used between the host and the client. Most computers can support the maximum serial rate of 115200 baud, but this is dependent on variables such as the quality of the serial cable, the speed of the host computer, and the type of serial controllers present on the two computers.
NTRecover 7.3 The Statistics Screen After a connection is made, the client displays a statistics screen [Figure 7-2] which shows the number of reads and writes, as well as bytes read and written, from and to the client drives. At any time, press escape to have the client exit, or return to the connection screen if it was started from a native NTRecover boot floppy. Figure 7-2 After you have finished accessing a client disk from the host, you must dismount it.
NTRecover 7.4 Connecting to Another Client The usage model assumed by NTRecover is that you may wish to connect with more than one client during a host session (i.e. a session lasts until the next reboot of the host). To connect to a new client, dismount the current client from the statistics window. Wait until the main connection dialog reappears, and then disconnect the serial cable from the current client and connect it to the next client.
NTRecover 8 Troubleshooting 8.1 Frequently Asked Questions Here are some common questions about NTRecover: Why can't I get NTRecover to connect to the client? This is most often caused by an incorrectly configured serial port on the host or client machine. On the host machine: ♦= Verify the comm port is enabled. You may need to delete and re-add the port if it is not configured correctly.
NTRecover How can I make directory browsing faster? Accessing client drives from Explorer in NT 4.0 can be slow because it reads file contents to obtain icon data. This can be avoided by accessing the drives from the file manager browser (Winfile) or an MS-DOS command prompt window. I make changes to files on the client machine, but after I reboot it the files are the same as before.
NTRecover ♦= SECURITY - security hive ♦= SOFTWARE - software hive ♦= SYSTEM - system hive 6. Open the hive and name it something obvious (e.g. "clientSoftware"). 7. You can now edit the contents of the registry keys within the new hive directory normally, as they are now part of the host machine's registry. 8. When finished, select the hive again, and use the Registry|Unload Hive menu item to write the hive back to the client machine. 8.
NTRecover 9 Technical Support ♦= If you encounter a problem while using NTRecover that requires technical support, please e-mail us at: support@winternals.com ♦= You can also view our Frequently Asked Questions and download free updates from our web site at: http://www.winternals.
