Recovery Console Starts Without Prompting for a Password

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

SYMPTOMS

When you start your computer using either the Windows 2000 CD-ROM or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks and you choose to start Recovery Console, you may not be prompted for the administrator password. Your computer may start Recovery Console and display a command prompt.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if a valid Windows 2000 installation cannot be located. If a valid installation is not located, you can still start Recovery Console to perform a Repair operation (such as Fixmbr or Fixboot) on the drive. You can also partition and format hard disks without logging on.

You have access to the root folders of the hard disks but not to any subfolders. This means that you do not have access to the %SystemRoot% folder to replace files. Because you are not logged on to Windows 2000, access to the drive is limited for security reasons.

RESOLUTION

You need a valid installation of Windows 2000 to log on to Recovery Console, and to have access to the %SystemRoot% folder. If a valid installation does not exist, or there is disk corruption (such as a corrupted Master Boot Record [MBR]), you cannot gain access to the %SystemRoot% folder because Recovery Console is unable to verify security for the Windows 2000 installation.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbtool
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb