Winternals ERD COMMANDER 2003 User Manual
ERD Commander 2003
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 © 2003 Winternals Software LP
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
Table of Contents
1 Introduction ...................................................................................1
1.1 Overview of Use.............................................................................. 2
1.2 Sample Screen................................................................................ 6
2 ERD Commander 2003 Setup.......................................................7
2.1 System Requirements..................................................................... 7
2.2 Booting with ERD Commander 2003 .............................................. 8
2.3 License............................................................................................ 9
2.4 Password Protection ..................................................................... 10
2.5 Selecting the Installed Applications............................................... 11
2.6 Adding OEM SCSI Drivers ............................................................ 12
2.7 Adding OEM Network Drivers ....................................................... 13
2.8 Adding Files to the CD-ROM Image.............................................. 14
2.9 Image Location.............................................................................. 15
2.10 Burning the ERD Commander 2003 CD-ROM.............................. 16
3 Using ERD Commander 2003.....................................................17
3.1 Logon ............................................................................................ 19
3.2 Windowing Shell............................................................................ 22
3.3 System Information ....................................................................... 23
3.4 Explorer......................................................................................... 24
3.5 Volume Properties......................................................................... 26
3.6 Folder Properties........................................................................... 27
3.7 Resetting Permissions .................................................................. 28
3.8 Mapping Network Drives ............................................................... 29
3.9 Adding a Domain........................................................................... 30
3.10 Using File Search.......................................................................... 31
3.11 Using FileRestore.......................................................................... 33
3.12 Command Prompt ......................................................................... 35
3.13 Chkdsk .......................................................................................... 44
3.14 Diskpart ......................................................................................... 45
3.15 Regsvr32 ....................................................................................... 46
3.16 Notepad......................................................................................... 47
3.17 Regedit.......................................................................................... 48
3.18 Using Service and Driver Manager ............................................... 50
3.19 Using Event Log Viewer ................................................................ 52
3.20 Filtering Events ............................................................................. 53
3.21 Using TCP/IP Configuration .......................................................... 54
3.22 Using Disk Management ............................................................... 56
3.23 Locksmith ...................................................................................... 58
3.24 File Sharing ................................................................................... 59
Winternals Software Page i
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
3.25 System Restore............................................................................. 61
3.26 System Compare .......................................................................... 63
3.27 Running External Commands ....................................................... 64
4 Disk Commander.........................................................................66
4.1 Selecting a Drive Letter to Recover .............................................. 66
4.2 Selecting a Target Disk ................................................................. 68
4.3 Lost Volume Scan ......................................................................... 68
4.4 Partition Table Backup .................................................................. 69
4.5 Volume Recovery.......................................................................... 70
4.6 Salvaging Files.............................................................................. 72
5 Frequently Asked Questions......................................................75
6 Sales.............................................................................................77
7 Technical Support.......................................................................78
8 Index.............................................................................................79
Winternals Software Page ii
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
1 Introduction
When your Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Server 2003
system becomes unbootable and you’ve exhausted the recovery options
available with the operating system, you can rely on ERD Commander 2003
to provide full access to your dead system with a familiar Windows-like
environment. ERD Commander 2003 provides the tools you need to help you
quickly diagnose and repair the problem that is preventing your system from
booting.
Like the Recovery Console of Windows 2000 and Windows XP, as well as
the previous versions of ERD Commander, ERD Commander 2003 makes
any Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 file system accessible, including FAT,
NTFS and CDFS. Unlike those other utilities, ERD Commander 2003 offers
both a graphical windowing environment and a command-line console. In
addition, ERD Commander 2003 includes a service and driver manager,
Registry editor, Explorer-like file system browser, Notepad-like text editor,
Event Viewer, and local password changer so that you can gain access to
accounts to locked accounts. And when 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 2003 gives you full access to network file
shares.
With ERD Commander 2003, repairing your dead systems has never been
easier or more intuitive.
Winternals Software Page 1
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
1.1 Overview of Use
ERD Commander’s built-in tools allow you to perform many different types of
system diagnosis and repair. A few of the ways that ERD Commander 2003
helps you solve problems include:
Removing or Replacing Buggy Drivers
You can use ERD Commander 2003 to delete or replace the image files of
drivers or services that, because of a bug or misconfiguration, prevent
Windows NT/2000 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
prevent Windows NT/2000 from booting successfully. ERD Commander 2003
can copy up-to-date versions of old files from floppy disks, CD-ROMs, or
other computers on your network.
Correcting Misconfigured NTFS or Registry Security
If excessively restrictive security attributes are applied to certain system files
or directories on NTFS boot drives, or to some Registry keys, Windows will
become unbootable. Using ERD Commander 2003’s Explorer and Regedit
you can reset permissions on files, directories and Registry keys to regain
access.
Updating Locked Files
Once Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 is up and running many system files
cannot be replaced because the system keeps them locked. ERD
Commander 2003 makes it possible to update such files because it runs
when Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 is off-line and the files are not open.
Winternals Software Page 2
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
Correcting Registry Problems
A significant number of Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 boot problems are
the result of misconfigured Registry values. The ERD Commander 2003
Registry editor has all the capabilities and the same interface as the Windows
NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 Registry editor, making it easy for you to inspect
and change Registry settings.
Recovering Deleted Files
ERD Commander 2003 includes FileRestore, a utility that you can use to find
and restore deleted files from any supported Windows NT/2000/XP/Server
2003 file system format, including FAT, FAT32, and NTFS.
Copying Important Files off of a Dead System
ERD Commander 2003 enables you to access files on a Windows
NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 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 2003’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 2003’s Locksmith utility allows you to list the accounts for a
Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 system and to change their passwords,
including Administrator accounts.
Viewing Event Logs
Since the Event Logs of a system often contain clues that can help you
diagnose a boot problem, ERD Commander 2003 includes an Event Log
Viewer with the same interface as the Windows 2000/XP Event Log Viewer
MMC snap-in, allowing you to inspect logs for relevant records.
Winternals Software Page 3
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
Running CHKDSK on Corrupt Drives
ERD Commander 2003 will let you check the consistency of hard drives.
Enabling and Disabling Services and Drivers
You can list and modify the start types of a system's drivers and services with
ERD Commander 2003’s Service and Driver Manager utility. The utility
implements an interface similar to the Windows 2000/XP Services MMC
snap-in, which makes it easy to identify services and drivers and to disable
those that are preventing a system from booting.
Restoring Windows XP Restore Points
Windows XP’s Restore Point feature periodically creates snapshots of a
system’s state that includes system files and Registry data. Overcoming a
deficiency of Windows XP’s Restore Point functionality, ERD Commander
2003 allows you to restore unbootable systems to a previous Restore Point.
Comparing a Working System with a Dead System
ERD Commander 2003’s System Compare utility let’s you compare service
and driver configuration and the system files of a dead system with that of a
live system or a Windows installation media to which you direct it. This
enables you to identify differences between working systems and one that
doesn’t boot in order to guide your repair process.
Partitioning and Formatting Disks
The Disk Management MMC snap-in that ERD Commander 2003 includes in
its Computer Management utility has many of the features of the Windows
2000/XP Disk Management MMC snap-in, allowing you to delete, format, and
create partitions and volumes. If you prefer a command-line environment you
can use the corresponding command-line tool, DiskPart, to accomplish the
same tasks.
Winternals Software Page 4
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
Scanning a Dead System for Viruses
With ERD Commander 2003 you can share the drives of a system on the
network so that you can access them from another computer. This allows you
to use tools installed on other systems to aid in the repair process. For
example, if you suspect a virus has attacked a computer you can shut it
down, boot into ERD Commander 2003, share its drives, and then run a virus
scanner on the drives from a different system.
Registering COM/DCOM Server DLLs
A system may become unstable if COM or DCOM registration information is
corrupted or deleted. The standard Windows COM/DCOM server DLL
registration utility, Regsvr32, requires that you be logged into a system into
which you are registering DLLs, but ERD Commander 2003’s Regsvr32 utility
enables you to register COM/DCOM server DLLs into an installation that’s
offline.
Winternals Software Page 5
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
1.2 Sample Screen
This screenshot demonstrates a typical session using ERD Commander 2003
to access the Registry and service configuration of an unbootable system.
Winternals Software Page 6
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
2 ERD Commander 2003 Setup
2.1 System Requirements
ERD Commander 2003 requires that the target system have a bootable CD-
ROM, and one of the following operating systems:
Windows NT 4 •
•
Windows 2000
•
Windows XP
•
Windows Server 2003
Regardless of operating system, ERD Commander 2003 requires a minimum
of 64MB of system memory and an x86 233MHz processor.
Note that ERD Commander 2003 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 systems.
The ERD Commander 2003 Boot CD-ROM Wizard runs on Windows 95, 98,
Me, NT, 2000, XP and Server 2003.
Winternals Software Page 7
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
2.2 Booting with ERD Commander 2003
There are two delivery methods for ERD Commander 2003: as a Boot-CD
Wizard and as a bootable CD-ROM. You receive the Boot CD-ROM Wizard
as an executable file when you download ERD Commander 2003 after an on-
line purchase; the version of ERD Commander 2003 that ships as physical
media is a bootable image that also includes an installer for the Boot-CD
Wizard.
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
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 •
•
CDR or CDRW 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 CD-ROM Wizard.
Winternals Software Page 8
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
2.3 License
After you start the Boot CD-ROM Wizard you will be presented with a page
that requests your licensing information. On-line purchasers receive the
licensing information as an e-mail attachment that you can import into the
Wizard. The Boot CD-ROM Wizard verifies the license information and
embeds it into the ISO image so that, after you create a bootable CD-ROM
from the image and start ERD Commander 2003 from the resultant CD-ROM,
ERD Commander 2003 presents the licensing information when it starts.
Winternals Software Page 9
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
2.4 Password Protection
The Boot CD-ROM Wizard offers you the option to password protect the ERD
Commander 2003 CD-ROM that you create. This is useful if you wish to
restrict use of the ERD Commander 2003 boot CD-ROM to authorized
individuals.
Winternals Software Page 10
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
2.5 Selecting the Installed Applications
You can customize the set of tools included on the ERD Commander 2003
CD. For some deployments you may wish to restrict the power of an ERD
Commander boot CD by omitting certain tools, for example. Tools that you
omit are not included on that instance of the CD-ROM image.
Winternals Software Page 11
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
2.6 Adding OEM SCSI Drivers
If you work with systems that use SCSI adapters that Windows XP does not
natively support (i.e., hardware that requires additional drivers to be added for
Windows XP to use it) then you can add those OEM drivers to ERD
Commander 2003. To add an OEM driver, simply enter the path to the driver
(the driver file should end in .SYS) or browse to it, and click the Add button.
Winternals Software Page 12
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
2.7 Adding OEM Network Drivers
If you work with systems that have network drivers that Windows XP does not
natively support (i.e., hardware that requires additional drivers to be added for
Windows XP to use it) then you can add those OEM drivers to ERD
Commander 2003. To add an OEM driver, simply enter the path to the
driver’s installation file (the installation file should end in .INF) or browse to it,
and the Add button.
Winternals Software Page 13
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
2.8 Adding Files to the CD-ROM Image
Before creating the final ISO image, ERD Commander 2003 gives you the
opportunity to add your own files to the image. The Boot CD-ROM Wizard
informs you of the location of the ERD Commander 2003 directory tree. Files
you add to the tree will be present in the final CD-ROM image.
Winternals Software Page 14
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
2.9 Image Location
The Boot CD-ROM Wizard’s final interactive step prompts you to specify the
destination of the generated ISO image. The image requires approximately
150 MB of disk storage, 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.
Winternals Software Page 15
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
2.10 Burning the ERD Commander 2003 CD-ROM
Most popular CD-ROM burning applications offer the option to write a CD-
ROM from a CD-ROM ISO file. Check with your software’s documentation for
information on how to do this. For additional tips, please check the
Winternals Product Knowledge Base:
http://www.winternals.com/support/kbfiles/ISOtoCD.pdf
Winternals Software Page 16
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
3 Using ERD Commander 2003
Once ERD Commander 2003 boots, a stripped-down version of Windows XP
will start and run the ERD Commander 2003 windowing environment. It’s
important to keep in mind that, although this graphical environment looks like
Windows and even has similar utilities, it is not Windows code and therefore
behaves slightly differently. Also note that your end-user license agreement
prohibits use of ERD Commander 2003 as a general-purpose operating
system, and the environment is designed to reboot automatically 24 hours
after starting.
NOTE
: it is important that you do not remove the ERD Commander 2003 CD-
ROM from the system while ERD Commander 2003 is running. Doing so
could result in a lock-up of ERD Commander 2003, requiring a reboot.
The ERD Commander 2003 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
•
Explorer
•
File Search
•
FileRestore
•
Command Prompt
•
Chkdsk
•
Regsvr32
•
Notepad
•
Regedit
Winternals Software Page 17
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
Service and Driver Manager •
•
Event Log Viewer
•
TCP/IP Configuration
•
Disk Management
•
Locksmith
•
File Sharing
•
System Restore
•
System Compare
•
Disk Commander (available if ERD Commander 2003 is purchased as
part of the Administrator’s Pak)
This section describes the functionality and use of each of these tools. In
addition, you can execute Win32 applications other than those that are part of
the ERD Commander 2003 environment.
Winternals Software Page 18
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
3.1 Logon
When ERD Commander 2003 boots it executes the Winternals Logon
application. The first step performed by the Logon application is to start the
networking services. These 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 after logging in to specify a static IP address.
If the ERD Commander 2003 CD was generated by the Boot CD-ROM
Wizard, the Logon application next displays the licensing information entered
during execution of the wizard. Otherwise it will prompt you to enter ERD
Commander 2003 license text or specify a file containing an ERD
Commander 2003 license.
Next, the Logon application scans the system’s hard-disk volumes for
Windows NT, 2000, XP, and Server 2003 installations. It displays the system
root directory of located installations, the type of operating system installed,
and service pack information. It also allows you to specify the language
layout of your keyboard. The default language selection is the one specified
by the operating system installation entered in the edit box of the Logon
application.
Winternals Software Page 19
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
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, missing, or have restrictive permissions that do not
allow the System account access. Registry hives are the Registry’s on-disk
storage files and are stored under \SystemRoot\System32\Config (where
SystemRoot is the system root directory of a Windows NT, 2000, XP, or
Server 2003 installation).
Choose the installation you wish to repair from the list, by manually entering
the system root path, or by browsing to the system root directory. When you
make a selection the Logon application validates the SYSTEM, 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 2003 utilities also have limited functionality.
Winternals Software Page 20
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
The Logon application allows you to choose a keyboard layout and time zone
using the 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 the Registry of that installation is accessible.
Clicking the OK button selects the specified installation and starts the ERD
Commander 2003 Windowing Shell, described in the next section. After you
have completed work on an installation and log off the Windowing Shell you
return to this Logon dialog. Clicking the Reboot button performs a clean
shutdown and reboot of the computer.
Winternals Software Page 21
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
3.2 Windowing Shell
The ERD Commander 2003 Windowing Shell closely resembles Microsoft's
Explorer shell. It has a task bar, Start menu, and desktop shortcuts.
However, you cannot move the Windowing 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 2003 applications and
manage multiple running applications with taskbar buttons.
NOTE:
a limitation in the ERD Commander 2003 operating environment
prevents concurrent execution of more than approximately 4 applications.
ERD Commander 2003 will inform you when starting another application
might exceed the limit.
Winternals Software Page 22
ERD Commander 2003
User’s Guide
3.3 System Information
The ERD Commander 2003 System Information utility is accessed via the
Administrative Tools folder of the Start menu. The utility reports extensive
information about the system you are repairing, including the operating
system version, service pack, hotfixes, registered owner and organization
and more. It also displays the installation’s computer name as well as the
computer name (listed as the "Real computer name") that ERD Commander
2003 randomly assigns while it is running. The value of the System root,
which represents the root folder of the installation, can be useful to determine
where key system files, such as service and driver files and Registry hives,
reside.
Winternals Software Page 23
Loading...