If your Windows NT system configuration gets damaged, you might be able to repair it using Windows NT’s emergency repair process. You can use this process with or without the ERD discussed in the previous section; however, having a repair disk will greatly improve your chances for a successful recovery.
You’ll likely be using the repair process as a last-ditch effort to recover your system; it’s often the only option short of a doing a full reinstallation of Windows NT and then restoring a current full system backup (e.g., from a backup tape). The following are typical situations that could require the repair process:
The MS-DOS SYS command is run on your Windows NT system volume, replacing the Windows NT boot sector with an MS-DOS boot sector (this prevents the Windows NT boot loader from running at startup)
An application or Windows NT informs you that your registry is corrupt
Any situation where Windows NT cannot be booted or hangs during the boot process (freezes or gives a blue STOP screen)
Use the following steps to initiate the emergency repair process:
Boot the system from the Windows NT Setup Disk 1 (Setup Boot Disk).
Continue Windows NT Setup. On Disk 2, you will receive the Welcome to Windows NT Setup screen, giving you several options, including the option of pressing R to repair a damaged Windows NT installation. Press R.
Next, you will receive a screen (shown in Figure 7.6) asking which optional tasks you would like the repair process to perform. To select an option, move the up/down arrow keys to highlight it, and press Enter to toggle the option on or off. When you select an option, an X appears in the box next to it. When you have selected all desired options, highlight the option to continue and press Enter.
To load support for the mass-storage device on which your Windows NT installation is located, Windows NT will start the same mass-storage detection process it used during the initial installation. Windows NT will detect whatever mass-storage devices it can and display them. If you wish to manually specify additional mass-storage devices in your system or install any third-party driver disks to support your mass-storage devices, you can do so with the S option (Specify Additional Device).
Once you have installed support for all mass-storage devices in your system, you will be asked to specify whether or not you have an ERD that the repair process can use. If you have an ERD, press Enter; if not, press Escape.
If you have an ERD, you will be asked to insert the disk in Drive A:. Windows NT uses the information on the repair disk to determine the hard disk location of your Windows NT installation. If you don’t have an ERD, Setup will scan your system’s hard disk(s) and attempt to locate the Windows NT installation. When Setup finds a Windows NT installation, it will display the location, and you will be asked to confirm the repair of that installation.
The repair process will run Chkdsk and inspect the portions of your system specified in step 3. If damage to the Windows NT Registry is detected, Windows NT will then ask which registry files you wish to restore, recommending individual files based on the result of its inspection. The registry files — System, Software, Default, and Security/Sam — are displayed in a list. You can also change the default selections and select or deselect individual registry files. To do this, move the up/down arrow keys to highlight a file, and press Enter to toggle the restore option on or off. When a file is selected, an X will appear in the box next to it. When you have selected all desired options, highlight the Continue option and press Enter.
During the restore process, Windows NT may require files from the Windows NT 4.0 installation CD-ROM; if asked to do so, insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive.
When the repair process is complete, the system will prompt you to press Enter to restart the system.
Caution: Never use an ERD from another computer during the repair process. The repair disk contains machine-specific information about the computer it was created on, and thus should only be used for repairs performed on that computer.
In step 7, when the repair process asks you which portions of the Windows NT environment should be inspected, it presents you with the following three options:
Inspect registry files. This option inspects each registry file to determine whether it is corrupt. If files are corrupt, you will also receive the screen (explained previously in step 7) that lets you specify which files should be restored.
Inspect Startup environment. This option checks the integrity of the Windows NT boot files such as Ntldr, Ntdetect.com , and so on. If these files are damaged, Windows NT may not boot properly.
Verify Windows NT System Files. This option compares all files installed by the Windows NT Setup process to the files currently on the hard disk. If files are missing, corrupt, or different from the original versions installed, Windows NT will notify you and offer to replace the file with an original copy from the Installation CD.
Special Note: When Windows NT verifies the system files, it will be unaware of any postinstallation changes such as Service Pack updates or modifications to core Windows NT system files made by third-party software. Therefore, it will always suggest that these files be replaced. If you restore files to your Windows NT installation in this manner, be sure to re-apply any Service Pack updates you have installed after the restoration is complete and Windows NT has been restarted.
A final word on repairing a Windows NT installation: because this process replaces critical system configuration files, you should only use it as a last resort. Also, don’t rely on the ERD as a backup; it may not be able to recover the system, depending on the severity and nature of the problem. For a true backup, you should use Windows NT Backup or a third-party backup program capable of backing up both the drive’s data and the Windows NT Registry files.
PREPARING FOR STOP ERRORS
Every operating system has a fatal error message that strikes dread in its users. MS-DOS users may have occasionally seen Exception 12 or Exception 13 errors, which force a system restart. In Windows 3.0, it’s the Unrecoverable Application Error (UAE), indicating that an application has overwritten another’s memory space and crashed. In Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups, this message was changed in nomenclature (but not in severity) to the infamous General Protection Fault (GPF) error message.
In Windows NT, the dreaded error is the STOP error screen — referred to as the “Blue Screen of Death” by Windows NT veterans. This screen appears when a severe fatal error occurs on the system. It is not generally an application-related error message; it indicates a major failure of some low-level system service, device, or hardware component. Because of Windows NT’s memory protection features, STOP errors are relatively rare. However, every system is likely to experience a STOP error at some point.
You can’t undo a STOP error. Once this error appears, you have to restart the system. You can, however, set up Windows NT ahead of time to react to these STOP errors in specific ways and perform pre-designated tasks automatically. These set-up options are configured using the Startup/Shutdown tab of the Control Panel’s Services applet (shown in Figure 7.7).
In this dialog box, you can set various options for controlling the actions Windows NT will take when a STOP error occurs. On Windows NT Workstation, none of these options is set by default; however, on Windows NT Server, all of the options are automatically selected. The options and their related effects are described below:
Write an event to the system log. Checking this box tells Windows NT to write event information to the system log when a STOP error occurs.
Send an administrative alert. Checking this box causes Windows NT to send an alert to administrators of the Windows NT computer (defined in the Alerts portion of the Server applet dialog, described elsewhere in this chapter) when a STOP error occurs.
Write debugging information to. This options lets you specify the name of a log file that Windows NT can use to write the contents of system memory to when a STOP error occurs. The contents of this log file can be helpful to you or a product support technician when trying to find the cause of a STOP error. The “Overwrite any existing file” option lets you specify whether or not Windows NT should overwrite an existing log file of the same name with a new one.
Automatically reboot. This options tells Windows NT to automatically restart the system when a STOP error occurs.
For More Information: For more information on the STOP error configuration options and the Control Panel’s System applet, see “System,” Chapter 5.
USING ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE
Although Windows NT’s design makes it far less susceptible to damage from viruses than previous operating systems, it is not invulnerable. You should, therefore, obtain antivirus software for your Windows NT system and run virus checks regularly. Also, you should be get the periodic virus “signature” updates from the software’s developer, because new viruses are appearing all the time.
Special Note: A virus signature is a small piece of a virus program’s code that identifies that virus. When an antivirus program scans files for virus infection, these signatures are compared to the contents of each file to determine whether the file is infected.
If you experience strange problems or bizarre behavior in your Windows NT environment, your system might have a virus. Sometimes problems that appear to be software- or hardware-generated can actually be caused by a virus.
Although Windows NT includes antivirus software, several garden-variety antivirus packages are on the market, including some that are shareware or freeware.
Table 7.1 lists some of the currently available antivirus programs for Windows NT, including the names of the manufacturers and their Web home page addresses.
Tools and Resources: You may want to become familiar with how viruses function in the Windows NT environment. Symantec Corporation has produced an excellent white paper on this subject: “Understanding Virus Behavior in the Windows NT Environment.” You should read this if you’re concerned about virus prevention under Windows NT.
Description of Resource
“Understanding Virus Behavior in the Windows NT Environment,” a technical white paper on viruses under Windows NT, by Symantec Corporation’s Anti-Virus Research Center (SARC).
Where to Find It
This document can be accessed at the following Web site:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/vbnt.html
Tip for Windows 3.x Users: If your system is a dual-boot Win 3.x/NT system, you can also boot to Windows 3.x or MS-DOS and run the Microsoft antivirus program that comes with those systems. These programs will only work on FAT volumes, however, because they can’t understand the NTFS file system.
UPDATING WINDOWS NT WITH SERVICE PACKS
An old tenet in computer science says that all software has bugs, and Windows NT is no exception. But bugs found in Windows NT are handled differently. When Microsoft finds bugs, it repairs them and issues “patches,” known as Service Packs, to the Windows NT operation system. In addition to problem fixes, Service Packs also contain feature upgrades or enhancements to the Windows NT operating system. Service Packs make it possible for Microsoft to repair bugs and add functionality without going through the development costs associated with a new version release.
Service Packs are numbered sequentially in the order of their release: Service Pack 1, Service Pack 2, and so on. In addition, each Service Pack level is cumulative, containing all the fixes and enhancements in all previous Service Pack releases. You only need to load the most recent Service Pack to obtain all of the fixes and enhancements released to date.
Where to Obtain Service Packs
You can obtain Service Packs a number of different ways. In the past, Microsoft has made them available for a nominal fee (covering the cost of shipping and materials), but the best way to obtain Service Packs is by downloading them from the Internet or any of the commercial online services such as America Online, CompuServe, or The Microsoft Network.
Microsoft offers Windows NT Service Packs on its FTP server, located at ftp.microsoft.com, inside subdirectories within the \bussys\winnt\winnt-public\fixes directory. This directory contains folders (subdirectories) for various international versions of Windows NT (USA for the United States, FRN for France, and so on). Inside the country-specific folder you must choose the version-specific folder (e.g., \40 for Windows NT 4.0, \351 for Windows NT 3.51, etc.). Inside this folder, you must specify the folder containing the Service Pack level you’re looking for (e.g., SP1 for Service Pack 1, SP2 for Service Pack 2). Once inside this folder, you must then select the folder representing the hardware platform of your Windows NT computer (e.g., \I386, \MIPS, \ALPHA, \PPC). This folder holds a self-extracting archive file (an .exe file) that contains the Service Pack, with a name specific to the version of Windows NT, the Service Pack level, and the hardware platform chosen.
Once you have downloaded this .exe file, place it in its own folder on your hard disk and then execute the program (e.g., by double-clicking its icon or using the Start Menu Run command). This will “unpack” the archive file into that directory. You are then ready to install the Service Pack update.
Tip: If you use an FTP client utility to download a Service Pack (or any type of binary file), be sure to instruct your FTP client to use binary transfer mode and not ASCII (text) mode when transferring the file from the FTP server.
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