Booting NOT-Windows

[Ben Scott]

  Each answer first:

On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 2:25 PM, Peg Harris <TechWtr at handspun.com> wrote:
> Since this machine has the ability to boot off a USB device or a CD, I
> wonder if I can boot up something else that will see all of my other disks ...

  Yup.  As others have suggested, one of the numerous Linux "live CDs"
works well for this.  In addition to Knoppix, I believe the Ubuntu and
SuSE live CDs include at least read-only NTFS support.  Not sure about
Fedora.

> This morning, it decided that there was a file missing and it won't
> completely boot.  It doesn't even want to do a "SAFE" boot.

  Text mode console, "Missing or corrupt file", in white text on a
mostly black screen?  That means a really important file is missing --
one needed for Windows to boot at all.  Kind of like the equivalent of
Linux's "No init found", except that there are many more such files in
Windows.

> I put in XP's "recovery CD" and that lands me into a recovery console (which is
> basically a DOS prompt.)

  The Recovery Console is actually a special-purpose program.  Despite
it's superficial appearance to a DOS or NT command prompt, it's not a
general-purpose shell.  You're limited to a few commands for tweaking
an install system -- disabling services, deleting files, regenerating
the MBR, that sort of thing.

> But, I can not copy from one to the other.  I called Dell support, and was
> told that since the initial installation did not give the "Administrator" account a
> password, I've missed out on some useful recovery tools (that would have
> been a nice warning to get during the install.)

  You also have to set some obscure registry entry or Group Policy
setting somewhere.

  If you want to try the Microsoft way, run the "Repair" option, and
tell the CD to attempt to repair the installed Windows system.  This
works probably less than half the time, and even when it does work, it
has a tendency to break some installed software, but hey, it's an
option.

  The only other thing Microsoft supports is a parallel installation
of Windows.  In other words, install a whole 'nother copy of the OS,
but in C:\FOO or something, instead of C:\WINDOWS.

  Nice, eh?

-- Ben