Microsoft KB Archive/229077

= Mirroring Prevents Pre-Installing the Recovery Console =

Article ID: 229077

Article Last Modified on 2/21/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition

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This article was previously published under Q229077





SUMMARY
The Windows Recovery Console is used to facilitate repairing an unbootable computer. It requires the Windows installation media (the four Setup disks or the CD-ROM). The Recovery Console can be pre-installed by running the winnt32 /cmdcons command from the Windows installation CD-ROM to place the files on the local hard disk. This option requires approximately 7 megabytes (MB) of disk space on the system partition.

When your system partition (containing the Ntldr, Ntdetect.com, and Boot.ini files) is part of a Windows basic or dynamic disk software mirror, you cannot pre-install the Recovery Console. If you try to pre-install the Recovery Console with the winnt32 /cmdcons command, you receive the following error message:

No valid system partitions were found, Setup is unable to continue.



MORE INFORMATION
The winnt32 /cmdcons command performs the same system checks as a "clean" installation. A clean installation of Windows is not allowed on a mirrored system partition.

If you want the Recovery Console pre-installed on a mirrored system partition to help facilitate a repair, you must break the mirror, install the Recovery Console, then re-establish the mirror.

NOTE: If you are using legacy basic disk mirroring, you should not break the mirror unless you plan to upgrade the disk from basic to dynamic. Legacy disk mirrors cannot be re-created in Windows; only dynamic disk mirrors can be created.

Pre-installing the Recovery Console on a computer running Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 is allowed, but you must break the mirror, install the Recovery Console, re-establish the mirror, and then upgrade to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. This process retains your legacy basic disk mirroring.

Keywords: kberrmsg kbfaq kbinfo KB229077

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