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Number : 114 Date : 2001-05-24 Author : Kan Yabumoto Subject : A draft for a new tech bulletin Size(KB) : 5
I was fooling around with Win ME drive lately. And, here's a summary of what I found. Any comment? ==================================================================== XXCOPY TECHNICAL BULLETIN #31 From: Kan Yabumoto tech.xxcopy@d... To: XXCOPY user Subject: An Emergency Boot Diskette for Win ME Date: 2001-05-24 ==================================================================== This is really an off-topic subject for an XXCOPY user, it might be of interest to anybody who uses Windows ME. To be perfectly honest, I'm not a big fan of Windows ME. I have been happily using the Windows 98 SE, albeit it freezes at times for no apparent reason --- when I take a long lunch break and come back, I often find the system fully locked up :-( Anyway, one thing really annoys me with Win ME is that the "Start UP" diskette which Win ME creates as part of the initial installation procedure is quite useless. It does not allow you to enter the Windows ME environment at all. All it gives you is a pseudo DOS environment with/without the support of the CD-ROM drive (Oh, yes, it gives you a Help menu). Great!!! It seems that when something goes wrong with the few key files in the root directory and/or the master boot record (MBR), the only option you have is to re-install the whole Windows ME. I have no idea why Microsoft forces us to do that after all those years with Win9x... Anyway, here's a trick that seems to work well to enter Windows ME world without any file in the root directory of the C: drive. It is so unbelievably simple, I'm not sure if I'm missing something. Here's how to create the "WinME Quick-Restart" diskette: 1. Open a DOS Box inside Win ME. 2. XXCOPY C:\IO.SYS A:\ /H 3. XXCOPY C:\MSDOS.SYS A:\ /H That is it!!! The diskette is a bootable diskette which does not rely on any file in the root directory of the C: drive. Of course, the contents of the MSDOS.SYS file should be carefully controlled. The following text is ---------------------------------------------------------- [Paths] WinDir=C:\WINDOWS WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS HostWinBootDrv=C [Options] AutoScan=0 BootDelay=0 BootMulti=0 BootGUI=1 BootMenu=0 BootMenuDefault=1 BootMenuDelay=4 DoubleBuffer=1 Logo=0 DblSpace=0 DrvSpace=0 DisableLog=1 WinVer=4.90.3000 ; ;The following lines are required for compatibility... ;Do not remove them (MSDOS.SYS needs to be >1024 bytes). ;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; ... ----------------------------------------------------------- Note: If your windows directory is not "C:\WINDOWS", make adjustments as needed. Here, some non-default settings are chosen: AutoScan=0 (1 to carry out ScanDisk) Logo=0 (1 to hide the screen by the log image) DisableLog=1 (0 to generate BOOTLOG.TXT) DblSpace=0 (1 to load DBLSPACE.BIN automatically) DrvSpace=0 (1 to load DRVSPACE.BIN automatically) Tips: 1. This "Win ME Quick-Restart" diskette should go right into the Windows ME screen without letting you to stay in DOS. This procedure does not use any of the files in the root directory of the system disk (C:). Still, this method assumes that the system registry files and the key INI files are not corrupted. 2. If your system is too corrupted to come back alive using the Quick-restart diskette, you should use the Windows ME Emergency Recovery diskette (that you made in the ME Installation step). 3. Boot up from the Emergency Recovery Diskette and select Menu 4 (Minimal Boot). 4. Run FDISK to make sure that the Primary DOS Partition has the proper start up program. FDISK /MBR Caution: If your system is configured as dual-boot with Windows NT/2000, this procedure will make it ME-only system. 5. Restore the key files from the system backup directory. First, see how many backup sets have been captured. DIR C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP\*.CAB Here's an example of what you see: RB000 CAB 1,888,538 05-21-01 5:36a rb000.cab RB003 CAB 1,889,721 05-22-01 7:38a rb003.cab RBBAD CAB 1,834,739 01-26-01 3:28p rbbad.cab RB002 CAB 1,892,943 05-20-01 12:45p rb002.cab Note that the file number and the file dates are not in a particular order. Yesterday's copy is usually good. Don't pick the one with RBBAD.CAB which is a bad one! Once you decide which of the .CAB files to restore You may increase the number of backup sets stored in the SYSBCKUP directory by editing the C:\WINDOWS\SCANREG.INI file (e.g., specify MaxBackupCopies=10 for ten sets). 6. Once you decide which backup set to restore, run: EXTRACT C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP\RB002.CAB /L C:\WINDOWS /E /Y Here, the RB002.CAB was chosen as an example. The directory name following the /L switch specifies the location of the the extracted files. The /E switch extracts all files. The /Y switch suppresses the overwrite prompts. In the case of Windows ME, the following files are expected to be restored: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT C:\WINDOWS\CLASSES.DAT C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI 7. After the FDISK and EXTRACT procedures described above, you can try again with the Quick Restart diskette to reboot. Also, note that the files that are on the Quick Restart diskette were originally from the root directory of the system disk (C:). Therefore, you may restore them by XXCOPY16 A:\*.SYS C:\ /H /R /Y The procedures described in this article is primarily for the Windows ME system, the method should equally apply to the Windows 98 and 98SE systems. Let me know if you encounter problems with the techniques described in this article. Kan Yabumoto ========================================================================
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