Tip & How To about Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Install the Windows Recovery Console using the i386 folder
Posted by 
Owen Stephen Dawson on Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Most preinstalled Windows that have the OEM Licence on non-removable sticker on the base unit will already have the i386 folder in the correct place you can check this using regedit OR copy and edit this to setup.reg change the SourcePath as described. This location is also where you can change the service pack paths if you don't feel confident using regedit why not use RegistrarLite a freeware version to help you with your bookmarking and regedits you can copy and paste this text and make your own reg file OR download this tweak below from HERE
First you will need to copy the i386 folder from a slipstreamed XPSP3 boot CD to the primary boot drive C: it will take up about 500MB of your drive using the %windir% will autoselect the windows install folder type
Also you will need to change the registry to tell the DOS that he new location of these files if you installed Windows from a CD then this will show the D: drive
If you have created a streamlined slipstream CD using RVM Integrator or nLite then you may have removed certain folders like the WINNTUPG folder to save space. If this is the case then you will need a full copy of the slipstreamed folder to make this work this is a screen dump of what you need to see in order for this process to work correctly
If you see the following window this means that the i386 folder that you are using is of the incorrect service pack if you are using SP3 check the WIN51IC file in the root folder if the file extension is SP2 and you are using SP3 then you will get this window before it attempts an online update.
It it does connect to the Windows Update server to find the latest version to update this is normal make sure that you have an internet connection and that your copy is licensed if any files on the i386 folder are missing or incorrect it will tell you that the data is invalid setup was unable to build a list of the files to be copied.
When you have installed the Recovery Console it changes your boot.ini file and adds the option to enter this from the Boot menu.
If the i386 folders files are not found you will see these two windows until this is sorted this is what you might get with a stripped slipstream image or folder especially if you have removed the WINNTUPG folder that contains the files NETUPGRD.DLL and the NETMAP.INF files you should at least keep these two for the installer to work correctly
The Recovery Console can also be created as a BootCD using the Microsoft floppy disc set of 6 download this from here
http://vlaurie.com/computers2/downloads/recovery_console_cd.zip
The site below that can be downloaded as a PDF for $5 is an excellent set of step by step instructions how to get the most out of the much unused but excellent way of repairing dead operating systems and also how to remove the Console restrictions to get the full use out of the capacities of the Recovery Console can be expanded with four "set" commands. The first allows access to all files and folders on the main system.
http://commandwindows.com/recovery.htm
This command is without question the one to learn over all others chkdsk C: /r this can also be used in the normal windows boot and is sometimes needed before Ghost Images are created see THIS tip for information
First you will need to copy the i386 folder from a slipstreamed XPSP3 boot CD to the primary boot drive C: it will take up about 500MB of your drive using the %windir% will autoselect the windows install folder type
Also you will need to change the registry to tell the DOS that he new location of these files if you installed Windows from a CD then this will show the D: drive
If you have created a streamlined slipstream CD using RVM Integrator or nLite then you may have removed certain folders like the WINNTUPG folder to save space. If this is the case then you will need a full copy of the slipstreamed folder to make this work this is a screen dump of what you need to see in order for this process to work correctly
If you see the following window this means that the i386 folder that you are using is of the incorrect service pack if you are using SP3 check the WIN51IC file in the root folder if the file extension is SP2 and you are using SP3 then you will get this window before it attempts an online update.
It it does connect to the Windows Update server to find the latest version to update this is normal make sure that you have an internet connection and that your copy is licensed if any files on the i386 folder are missing or incorrect it will tell you that the data is invalid setup was unable to build a list of the files to be copied.
When you have installed the Recovery Console it changes your boot.ini file and adds the option to enter this from the Boot menu.
If the i386 folders files are not found you will see these two windows until this is sorted this is what you might get with a stripped slipstream image or folder especially if you have removed the WINNTUPG folder that contains the files NETUPGRD.DLL and the NETMAP.INF files you should at least keep these two for the installer to work correctly
The Recovery Console can also be created as a BootCD using the Microsoft floppy disc set of 6 download this from here
http://vlaurie.com/computers2/downloads/recovery_console_cd.zip
The site below that can be downloaded as a PDF for $5 is an excellent set of step by step instructions how to get the most out of the much unused but excellent way of repairing dead operating systems and also how to remove the Console restrictions to get the full use out of the capacities of the Recovery Console can be expanded with four "set" commands. The first allows access to all files and folders on the main system.
- set AllowAllPaths = true
- set AllowRemovableMedia = true
- set AllowWildCards = true
- set NoCopyPrompt = true
http://commandwindows.com/recovery.htm
This command is without question the one to learn over all others chkdsk C: /r this can also be used in the normal windows boot and is sometimes needed before Ghost Images are created see THIS tip for information
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