Winternals ERD COMMANDER 2002 User Manual
ERD Commander 2002
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 © 2002 Winternals Software LP
ERD Commander 2002
Table of Contents
Table of Contents ................................................................................ i
1 Introduction................................................................................... 1
2 Overview of Use............................................................................ 2
3 ERD Commander 2002 Setup ...................................................... 5
3.1 Requirements ................................................................................5
3.2 Setup Ov e rview..............................................................................5
3.3 License..........................................................................................6
3.4 Password Protection......................................................................7
3.5 Image Location..............................................................................9
3.6 Burning the ERD Commander 2002 CD-ROM...............................9
4 Functional Overview .................................................................. 10
5 Logon .......................................................................................... 12
6 Windowing Shell......................................................................... 15
7 System Information.................................................................... 16
8 File Explorer................................................................................ 17
9 Volume Properties...................................................................... 19
10 Folder Properties........................................................................ 20
11 Resetting Permissions............................................................... 21
12 Mapping Network Drives............................................................ 22
13 Adding a Domain........................................................................ 24
14 Using File Search ....................................................................... 25
15 The Command-line Environment .............................................. 27
15.1 Overview......................................................................................27
15.2 The Command Set.......................................................................28
15.3 ATTRIB........................................................................................30
15.4 BUFFER ......................................................................................30
15.5 CALL............................................................................................30
15.6 CD/CHDIR ...................................................................................30
15.7 CLS..............................................................................................31
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ERD Commander 2002
15.8 COPY...........................................................................................31
15.9 DATE...........................................................................................31
15.10 DEL/ERASE.................................................................................32
15.11 DIR 33
15.12 ECHO..........................................................................................33
15.13 EXIT.............................................................................................34
15.14 HELP...........................................................................................34
15.15 MAP.............................................................................................34
15.16 MKDIR/MD...................................................................................35
15.17 MOVE..........................................................................................35
15.18 RMDIR/RD...................................................................................35
15.19 SCREEN......................................................................................35
15.20 SET..............................................................................................36
15.21 START.........................................................................................36
15.22 TIME............................................................................................ 36
15.23 TYPE...........................................................................................36
15.24 VERSION/VER ............................................................................37
15.25 XCOPY........................................................................................38
15.26 CHKDSK......................................................................................39
16 Notepad ....................................................................................... 40
17 Regedit ........................................................................................ 41
18 Using Service and Driver Manager ........................................... 43
19 Using Event Log Viewer............................................................. 45
19.1 Filtering Events............................................................................46
20 Using TCP/IP Configuration....................................................... 47
21 Using Logical Volumes .............................................................. 49
22 Locksmith ................................................................................... 50
23 Running External Commands ................................................... 51
24 Frequently Asked Questions..................................................... 52
25 Technical Support ...................................................................... 54
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1 Introduction
When your Windows XP, 2000, or NT system becomes unbootable, you can
rely on ERD Commander 2002 to provide you full access to your dead
system with a familiar desktop environment. ERD Commander 2002 supplies
the tools you need to help you quickly diagnose and repair the problem that is
preventing your system from booting.
ERD Commander 2002 makes any Windows XP/2000/NT file system,
including FAT, NTFS and CDFS, accessible through a graphical interface.
ERD Commander 2002 includes a service and driver manager, Registry
editor, Explorer-like file system browser, Notepad-like text editor, commandline console, Event Viewer, and a local password changer, Locksmith, that
ERD Commander 2002
allows you to gain access to accounts out of which you’ve been locked. And if
you need to save files to another system on the network, or to copy files from
another system as part of the repair process, ERD Commander 2002 gives
you full access to network file shares.
With ERD Commander 2002, repairing your dead systems is fast, easy, and
intuitive.
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2 Overview of Use
ERD Commander’s built-in tools allow you to perf orm many different t ypes of
system diagnosis and repair. A few of the ways that ERD Com mander 2002
helps you solve problems include:
Removing or Replacing Buggy Drivers
You can use ERD Commander 2002 to delete or replace the image files of
drivers or services that, because of a bug or misconfiguration, prevent
Windows 2000/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. In many cases this can
ERD Commander 2002
prevent Windows 2000/NT from booting successfully. ERD Commander 2002
can copy up-to-date versions of old files from floppy disks, CD-ROMs or other
computers on your network.
Correcting Misconfigured NTFS Security
If security attributes that are too restrictive are applied to certain system files
or directories on NTFS boot drives, Windows XP/2000/NT will become
unbootable. Using ERD Commander 2002’s file explorer or the command
prompt’s Access command you can reset permissions on files or directories
to regain access.
Updating Locked Files
Once Windows XP/2000/NT is up and running many system files cannot be
replaced because the system keeps them locked. ERD Commander 2002
makes it possible to update such files because it runs when Windows
XP/2000/NT is off-line and the files are not open.
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ERD Commander 2002
Correcting Registry Problems
A significant number of Windows XP/2000/NT boot problems are the result of
misconfigured Registry values. The ERD Commander 2002 Registry editor
has all the capabilities and the same interface as t he Windows XP/2000/NT
Registry editor, making it easy for you to inspect and change Registry
settings.
Copying Important Files off of a Dead System
ERD Commander 2002 enables you to access files on a Windows
XP/2000/NT system that fails to boot. You can copy files to removable media
such as floppy disks, Zip drives, or Jaz drives, or use ERD Commander
2002’s network capabilities to copy them to another system on your network.
Regaining Access to a System That You've Been Locked Out Of
ERD Commander 2002 allows you to list the accounts for a Windows
XP/2000/NT system and to change their passwords, including Administrator
accounts.
Viewing the Event Logs
Many times the Event Logs of a system contain clues that can help you
diagnose a boot problem, so ERD Commander 2002 includes an E vent Log
Viewer with the same interface as the Windows XP/2000 Event Log Viewer
MMC-snap-in, allowing you to inspect logs for relevant records.
Accessing Fault Tolerant Drives including Mirrors, Volume Sets, and
Striped Sets
With ERD Commander 2002 you can access the fault tolerant drives defined
by a Windows XP/2000/NT system even when that system is not active.
Running CHKDSK on Corrupt Drives
ERD Commander 2002 will let you check the consistency of hard drives.
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ERD Commander 2002
Enabling and Disabling Services and Drivers
You can list and modify the start types of a system's drivers and services with
ERD Commander 2002’s Service and Driver Manager utility. The utility
implements an interface similar to the Windows XP/2000 Services MMCsnap-in, which makes it easy to identify services and drivers and to disable
those that are preventing a system from booting.
Note that ERD Commander 2002 is not intended to resolve disk cor ruption,
and that only drives that are consistent enough to be recognized by Windows
2000/NT file systems will be accessible with ERD Comm ander 2002. If you
need to salvage files from a corrupt volume, or the partition table of a disk
has become damaged, we recommend that you consider Disk Commander
from Winternals Software (www.winternals.com).
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3 ERD Commander 2002 Setup
3.1 Requirements
ERD Commander 2002 requires that the target system have a bootable CDROM drive, and one of the following operating systems:
♦ Windows NT 4. Although you can use ERD Commander 2002 on
systems that do not have Service Pack (SP) 4 or higher, ERD
Commander 2002 updates NTFS volumes to a version that requires
the NTFS driver from SP 4 or higher. ERD Commander 2002 prompts
you before updating NTFS volumes on pre-SP 4 systems.
♦ Windows 2000
♦ Windows XP
ERD Commander 2002
Regardless of operating system, ERD Commander 2002 requires a minimum
of 64MB of system memory and an x86 233Mhz or equivalent processor.
Note that ERD Commander 2002 also gives you access to the drives of
Windows 95, 98, and Me systems, although many utilities, such as the
password changer, Registry editor, and Event Log viewer, do not function
when accessing installations of those operating system versions.
The ERD Commander 2002 Boot CD-ROM Wizard runs on Windows XP,
2000, NT, Me, and 9x.
3.2 Setup Overview
There are two delivery methods for ERD Commander 2002: as a Boot-CD
Wizard and as a bootable CD-ROM. The Boot CD-ROM Wizard is what you
receive as a download executable when you download ERD Commander
2002 after an online purchase, whereas the bootable CD-ROM is the physical
media on which ERD Commander 2002 is shipped.
Use the Boot CD-ROM Wizard to create a bootable CD-ROM ISO image. A
CD-ROM ISO image is a file that represents the raw contents of a CD-ROM
that you can burn onto a writable CD-ROM with most popular CD-ROM
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ERD Commander 2002
burning software. You will need several items in addition to successfully
create a bootable CD-ROM from the ISO image the Boot CD-ROM Wizard
creates:
♦ CD-ROM burner
♦ CD-R or CD-RW disk
♦ CD-ROM burning software that supports the formatting of CD-ROMs
from CD-ROM ISO images
This section guides you through the use of the wizard to create a CD-ROM
ISO image using the Boot C D-ROM Wizard.
3.3 License
After you start the Boot CD-ROM Wizard you will be presented with the dialog
box shown in Figure 3-1 asking you to enter your licensing information.
Online purchasers receive the licensing information as an e-mail attachment
that can be imported into the Wizard. The Boot CD-ROM Wizard verifies the
license information and embeds it into the I SO imag e so that, after you create
a bootable CD-ROM from the image and start ERD Commander 2002 from
the resultant CD-ROM, ERD Commander 2002 presents the licensing
information when it starts.
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ERD Commander 2002
Figure 3-1
3.4 Password Protection
The Boot CD-ROM Wizard offers the option to password protect the ERD
Commander 2002 CD-ROM that you create (see Figure 3- 2). This is helpful if
it is desired that use of the bootable CD be restricted to authorized personnel.
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ERD Commander 2002
Figure 3-2
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ERD Commander 2002
3.5 Image Location
The Boot CD-ROM Wizard’s final interactive step prompts you to specify the
destination of the generated ISO image (see Figure 3-3). The image requires
approximately 180 MB (graphic below indicates 150 MB size) of disk st orage,
and because most CD-ROM burning software requires ISO images to have a
.iso file extension, the Boot CD-ROM Wizard also requires that extension.
Figure 3-3
3.6 Burning the ERD Commander 2002 CD-ROM
Most popular CD-ROM burning applications offer the option to write a CDROM from a CD-ROM ISO file. Check with your software’s document ation for
information on how to do so.
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4 Functional Overview
Once ERD Commander 2002 boots, a stripped-down version of Windows XP
will start and run the ERD Commander 2002 windowing environment. It’s
important to keep in mind that, alt hough this graphical environment looks like
Windows and even has similar utilities, it is not Windows code and therefore
behaves slightly differently.
Also, your end-user license agreement prohibits use of ERD Commander
2002 as a general-purpose operating system, and the environment is
designed to reboot automatically upon 24 hours of continuous usage.
Note: it is important that you do not rem ove the ERD Commander 2002 CDROM from the system while ERD Commander 2002 is running. Doing so
could result in a lock-up of ERD Commander 2002, requiring a reboot.
ERD Commander 2002
The ERD Commander 2002 environment provides a number of powerful
utilities that help you identify and repair problems that are preventing a
system from booting. These include:
♦ Logon
♦ Windowing Shell
♦ System Information
♦ File Explorer
♦ File Search
♦ Command Prompt
♦ Chkdsk
♦ Notepad
♦ Registry Editor
♦ Service and Driver Manager
♦ Event Log Viewer
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♦ TCP/IP Configuration
♦ Logical Volumes
♦ Locksmith
ERD Commander 2002
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5 Logon
When ERD Commander 2002 boots it executes the Winternals Logon
application. If the ERD Commander 2002 CD-ROM was generated by the
Boot CD-ROM Wizard, the Logon application displays the licensing
information entered during execution of the wizard. Otherwise it will prompt
you to enter ERD Commander 2002 license text or specify a file containing
an ERD Commander 2002 license.
If you boot an ERD Commander 2002 CD-ROM generated by the Boot CDROM Wizard and you have password protected the installation you are
prompted to enter the password before being allowed to proceed.
After licensing information has been validated and, if applicable, a correct
ERD Commander 2002
password entered, the Logon application starts networking services. The
services assume that a DHCP server is present on your network and attempt
to obtain an IP address. If your network uses static IP addresses rather than
DHCP you can use the TCP/IP Configuration utility (see Chapter 20) after
logging in to specify a static IP address.
Once networking service initialization is complete the Logon application
scans the system’s hard-disk volumes looking for Windows XP, 2000, and NT
installations. It displays the system root directory of located installations, the
type of operating system installed, and service pack information (see Figure
5-1).
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ERD Commander 2002
Figure 5-1
If the system you wish to repair is not in the list or the operating system is
displayed as "unknown", then some or all of the Registry hives for that
installation are damaged or missing. Registry hives are the Registry’s ondisk storage files and are stored under \SystemRoot\System32\Config (where
SystemRoot is the system root directory of a Windows XP, 2000, and NT
installation).
Select the installation you wish to repair fr om the list - by manually entering
the system root path, or by browsing to the system root directory. W hen you
make a selection the Logon application validates the SYST EM, SOFTWARE,
SAM and SECURITY Registry hives and notifies you if any of them are
corrupt or missing. Note that in this event, the corresponding portions of the
Registry will be inaccessible by the Winternals Registry Editor, and other
ERD Commander 2002 utilities may also have limited functionality.
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ERD Commander 2002
The Logon application allows you to choose a keyboard layout and time zone
using the respective drop down controls. The default selections for keyboard
layout and time zone are taken from the installation you have currently
entered into the installation selection field if t he Registry of that installation is
accessible.
Selecting an installation starts the ERD Commander 2002 W indowing Shell,
which is described in the next section. After you have completed work on an
installation and logoff the Windowing Shell, you return to the logon dialog.
Pressing the Reboot button performs a clean shutdown and reboot of the
computer.
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6 Windowing Shell
The ERD Commander 2002 Windowing Shell has a strong resemblance to
Microsoft Explorer’s shell (see Figure 6-1). It has a task bar, St art menu, and
desktop shortcuts. However, you cannot move the Window Shell’s task bar,
edit the items on the Start Menu, move or modify existing desktop shortcuts,
or create new desktop shortcuts. The Windowing Shell provides the familiar
desktop motif and allows you to easily access ERD Commander 2002
applications, and allows you to manage multiple running applications with
taskbar buttons.
Note: a limitation in the ERD Commander 2002 operating environment
prevents the concurrent execution of more than 6 applications. ERD
Commander 2002 will inform you when starting another application exceeds
the limit.
ERD Commander 2002
Figure 6-1
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