Erd 2005 User Manual
Erd 2005 User Manual
version 1.03
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
Table of Contents
1 Introduction................................................................................... 1
1.1 ERD Commander Functionality......................................................1
1.2 Upgrading to ERD Commander Professional .................................1
1.3 Overview of Use.............................................................................2
2 ERD Commander Setup ............................................................... 4
2.1 Requirements ................................................................................4
2.2 Creating the Boot Diskettes ...........................................................4
2.3 ERD Commander for the DEC Alpha Edition .................................5
2.4 Adding Third-Party Drivers.............................................................5
3 Starting ERD Commander ........................................................... 7
3.1 Booting Up .....................................................................................7
3.2 Sample Screen ..............................................................................7
4 The Command-line Environment ................................................ 8
4.1 Overview........................................................................................8
4.2 Command-line Editing....................................................................9
5 The Command Set ...................................................................... 10
5.1 ACCESS ......................................................................................12
5.2 ATTRIB........................................................................................13
5.3 CD/CHDIR ...................................................................................13
5.4 CLS..............................................................................................13
5.5 COPY ..........................................................................................14
5.6 DEL/ERASE.................................................................................14
5.7 DIR ..............................................................................................15
5.8 EXIT/QUIT ...................................................................................16
5.9 HELP ...........................................................................................16
5.10 MAP.............................................................................................17
5.11 MKDIR/MD...................................................................................18
5.12 MORE/TYPE................................................................................18
5.13 MOVE ..........................................................................................18
5.14 RENAME/REN .............................................................................19
5.15 RMDIR/RD...................................................................................19
5.16 VERSION/VER ............................................................................19
5.17 XCOPY ........................................................................................20
6 Troubleshooting ......................................................................... 21
7 Technical Support ...................................................................... 24
1 Introduction
Welcome to ERD Commander, the advanced system utility that finally brings
boot-floppy functionality to Windows NT. When problems arise in Windows
3.1 or Windows 95 that render a system unbootable, there is always the
possibility of booting off of a DOS floppy disk so that the drives of the
machine can be accessed for repair and salvage. In the past, Windows NT
administrators have gone without this recovery option.
Note that ERD Commander is not intended to resolve disk corruption errors,
and that only drives that are consistent enough to be recognized by Windows
NT file systems will be accessible with ERD Commander.
2.1 Requirements
ERD Commander requires the Microsoft Windows NT© 4.0 installation CD-
ROM to create a set of boot diskettes. The disks can be used to access both
NT 4.0 and 3.51 systems.
You will need three blank floppy diskettes. Optionally, you can supply an
existing set of Windows NT Setup diskettes, which ERD Commander will
modify. Please note that such modification is permanent; you will not be able
to reinstall NT from those disks in the future.
When the ERD Commander Setup program is executed, it will allow you to
create a set of Windows NT boot floppies configured with ERD Commander.
You will be prompted for the Microsoft Windows NT© 4.0 Installation CD-ROM
and for the three floppy diskettes.
The Setup program will install two versions of the boot floppy creator onto
your hard drive. The 32–bit version is the program that is run during the initial
Setup. The 16–bit version allows you to configure boot floppies with ERD
Commander from a DOS boot floppy or from Windows 3.1. This is necessary
in cases where your Windows NT installation is non–bootable and you do not
have access to a second NT machine or to Windows 95.
The ERD Commander Setup program will allow you to create a set of Alpha
NT boot floppies that are configured with ERD Commander. The Setup
program will also allow you to install the ERD Commander boot files into a
directory on a hard drive or removable media. Follow your ARC OS loader
instructions to initiate a boot of ERD Commander, specifying “SETUPLDR” as
the boot file. Most ARC OS loaders accept the command “A:SETUPLDR” for
booting off a floppy.
After the installation has completed you can run the Setup program from the
ERD Commander program group to create additional sets of diskette sets.
Some systems have non-standard SCSI disk drives that require third-party
drivers to function under Windows NT. A set of ERD Commander boot
diskettes will not prompt you to specify such drivers like the standard
Windows NT boot diskettes do. However, it is possible to add third-party
SCSI device drivers to ERD Commander boot diskettes by following the
procedure outlined below. Note that this is not a supported option, but
presented here for your convenience.
Copy the driver(s) to floppy #3 and edit the txtsetup.sif file, which located on
floppy #1. Add a line for each driver in the following three sections:
oemdrvr.sys = 1,,,,,,_3,4,1
oemdrvr = oemdrvr.sys,4
Enter as shown above, replacing ”oemdrvr” with the name of the third-party
driver that you need to add. The format should match that of other entries in
each section.
3.1 Booting Up
After the disks are loaded, a stripped–down version of Windows NT will start,
displaying the familiar boot–time Blue Screen that presents the NT version
number, system memory size, and number of processors present. ERD
Commander then starts automatically and enters a command–line
environment nearly identical to the one NT implements in Command–Prompt.
Figure 3-1 is a presentation of what a typical display looks like after ERD
Commander has started. ERD Commander presents information on the disk
drives that are recognized and the drive letters it has assigned for them.
Volume name, file system type, and drive size data should help you identify
particular drives. (Note that this information can be reproduced with the MAP
command while using ERD Commander.)
C:\>
Figure 3-1
4.1 Overview
♦= Insert mode
♦= Command history
♦= RMDIR
♦= MKDIR
♦= MOVE
♦= RENAME
♦= DELETE
Note that the ENTER key that is part of numeric keypads is disabled.
MD Creates a directory.
RD Removes a directory.
5.1 ACCESS
The command can even be applied to root directories of drives that have
been totally locked down. Such drives will show up in the drive mapping as
having a file system type of “???”. Simply specify the directory, e.g. “G:\”, as
the parameter to allow Everyone full access to the root directory. Files and
directories within the drive can then be unlocked through subsequent
applications of the ACCESS command.
NOTE: Because this command makes files and directories fully accessible to
any user, which opens potential security holes, you should lock-down files
and directories on which it is used after the system is booted normally.
5.2 ATTRIB
Syntax ATTRIB [+R | -R] [+A | -A] [+S | -S] [+H | -H]
[drive:][path]filename] [/S]
- Clears an attribute
5.3 CD/CHDIR
Type CD drive: to display the current directory in the specified drive. Type CD
without parameters to display the current drive and directory.
5.4 CLS
Syntax CLS
5.5 COPY
Wildcards can be used in both the source and destination file name
specifications.
5.6 DEL/ERASE
5.7 DIR
Use the /P switch to cause DIR to pause after each screen of information.
Use CTRL-C to exit from DIR output back to the command prompt. If you
inadvertently omit this switch you can pause DIR’s output with CTRL-S or
terminate it with CTRL-C.
5.8 EXIT/QUIT
Syntax EXIT
QUIT
Be sure to remove the boot floppy from the floppy disk drive before the
system reboots.
5.9 HELP
5.10 MAP
Syntax MAP
Figure 5-1
5.11 MKDIR/MD
Creates a directory.
MD [drive:]path
MKDIR \a
Syntax MKDIR a\b\c is the same as
mkdir \a\b
mkdir \a\b\c
5.12 MORE/TYPE
TYPE filename
5.13 MOVE
5.14 RENAME/REN
Note that you cannot specify a new drive for your destination.
5.15 RMDIR/RD
5.16 VERSION/VER
Syntax VERSION
VER
5.17 XCOPY
Syntax XCOPY source [destination] [/A | /M] [/P] [/S] [/W] [/C] [/I] [/Q] [/F] [/H]
[/R] [/T] [/U] [/K]
/A Copies files with the archive attribute set, doesn't change the
attribute.
/M Copies files with the archive attribute set, turns off the archive
attribute.
/P Prompts you before creating each destination file.
/I If destination does not exist and copying more than one file,
assumes that destination must be a directory.
/Q Does not display file names while copying.
6 Troubleshooting
When ERD Commander is booting I get an error that a file is corrupt, or that
the boot cannot continue for some reason. What is the problem?
Errors during ERD Commander’s boot process are almost always due to
defective floppy disk media. (This damage will only be detected by
running a low-level sector scan of the disk.) Try creating the boot
diskettes using a new set of floppy diskettes.
Can I run external programs or commands once I've booted with ERD
Commander?
If you have a SCSI disk device that you'd like to access from within ERD
Commander that is not being recognized with the default setup, you can
add a new driver to the boot diskette set as follows:
Copy the new driver to floppy #3. Edit TXTSETUP.SIF from floppy #1,
and add a reference to the driver in the following three sections, copying
the format for existing drivers:
This occurs when a driver necessary to access your floppy disk is not
installed and when using PCMCIA-based floppy drives for laptops. To
correct this, manually install the PCMCIA driver on the ERD Commander
diskettes.
You must specify the /H switch to copy system and hidden files, and the
/R switch if you wish to overwrite read-only files.
How can I edit files on the machine after I've booted with ERD Commander?
ERD Commander does not contain a text editor. However, you can copy
files to a floppy disk, edit them on a second machine, and then copy
them back.
Does ERD Commander work with the NTFS 5 enhancements that come with
Service Pack 4/5 and Windows 2000?
The SP4 enhancements to the NTFS driver do not modify the file
system, and do not interfere with ERD Commander .
If you wish to use ERD Commander with a volume that has been
upgraded to NTFS 5 (which occurs automatically when you install
Windows 2000 on a system) you must replace several files on the ERD
Commander boot diskettes with new versions from a Service Pack 4/5
CD-ROM:
http://www.ntfaq.com/ntfaq/recovery21.html
7 Technical Support
♦= If you encounter a problem that isn’t resolved by the suggestions
listed above and wish to receive technical support, please e-mail us
at:
♦= You can also view our Frequently Asked Questions and download
free updates from our web site at:
http://www.winternals.com
♦= For urgent matters, please call the following number and request
Technical Support:
512-330-9861