Does anyone know of a command line boot utility

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I have a Windows XP Pro system that became hosed during a failed attempt to
apply SP2 and now is in a "Incomplete install.... rebooting" loop. Before
attempting to recover, I would like to boot into a command prompt...
hopefully from a bootable CD... and back up any critical files before
messing around. (Security files, registry, etc.).

Does anyone know of a utility for accomplsing this?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

BartPE http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"bill" <nfr@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ebt1noJgFHA.1044@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>I have a Windows XP Pro system that became hosed during a failed attempt to
> apply SP2 and now is in a "Incomplete install.... rebooting" loop. Before
> attempting to recover, I would like to boot into a command prompt...
> hopefully from a bootable CD... and back up any critical files before
> messing around. (Security files, registry, etc.).
>
> Does anyone know of a utility for accomplsing this?
>
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Hi, Bill.

In addition to the other suggestions, you might physically transfer your HD
into another computer temporarily to save your files.

If you don't need Windows itself - and IF your HD is formatted FAT - then
you can use an MS-DOS boot floppy to boot and to copy files. This won't
help with NTFS, though; you can still boot. but MS-DOS can't read or write
to the HD. You can make an MS-DOS boot floppy from WinXP (if you can get it
booted - or borrow another machine) by right-clicking on Drive A: in My
Computer and choosing Format.

Depending on your HD configuration (How many physical drives; how are they
partitioned and formatted; how much space is available on the other
partitions?), you might be able to boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and do a
parallel install, as described here:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources [...] r_jyof.asp

It may not be possible from where you are now, but can you boot from the
WinXP CD-ROM and do a Repair Install, as described in KB 315341?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP

"bill" <nfr@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:ebt1noJgFHA.1044@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>I have a Windows XP Pro system that became hosed during a failed attempt to
> apply SP2 and now is in a "Incomplete install.... rebooting" loop. Before
> attempting to recover, I would like to boot into a command prompt...
> hopefully from a bootable CD... and back up any critical files before
> messing around. (Security files, registry, etc.).
>
> Does anyone know of a utility for accomplsing this?