Recovery Console: What It Is & a List of Commands

The Recovery Console is a command line based, advanced diagnostic feature available in some early versions of the Windows operating system.

Recovery Console is used to help resolve a number of major system problems. It's particularly useful for repairing or replacing important operating system files.

When these files aren't working as they should, Windows will sometimes not start up at all. In these cases, you must start the Recovery Console to restore the files.

Older desktop computer at a workstation in an office — Chris Fortuna / Getty Images

Recovery Console Availability

The Recovery Console feature is available in Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003.

Recovery Console is not available in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, or Windows Vista. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP were the last Microsoft operating systems that contained Recovery Console.

Windows 7 and Windows Vista replaced Recovery Console with a collection of recovery tools referred to as System Recovery Options.

In Windows 10 and Windows 8, neither Recovery Console nor System Recovery Options are available. Instead, Microsoft created the arguably more powerful Advanced Startup Options as a central place to diagnose and repair Windows problems from outside the running operating system.

How to Access & Use Recovery Console

The usual way to access the Recovery Console is via booting from a Windows installation CD. Recovery Console can also sometimes be accessed from the boot menu, but only if it has been pre-installed on your system.

A number of commands, unsurprisingly called Recovery Console commands (all listed below), are available from within Recovery Console. Using these commands in specific ways can help solve specific problems.

Here are some examples where executing a particular command in the Recovery Console is necessary to fix a serious Windows issue:

Recovery Console Commands

As mentioned above, several commands are available within Recovery Console, quite a few of them exclusive to the tool. When used, these commands can do things as simple as copying a file from one place to another, or as complicated as repairing the master boot record after a major virus attack.

Recovery Console commands are similar to Command Prompt commands and DOS commands, but are completely different tools with different options and abilities.

Below is a complete list of Recovery Console commands, along with links to more detailed information about how to use each command:

Command	Purpose
Attrib	Changes or displays the file attributes of a file or folder
Batch	Used to create a script to run other Recovery Console commands
Bootcfg	Used to build or modify the boot.ini file
Chdir	Changes or displays the drive letter and folder you're working from
Chkdsk	Identifies, and often corrects, certain hard drive errors (aka check disk)
Cls	Clears the screen of all previously entered commands and other text
Copy	Copies a single file from one location to another
Delete	Deletes a single file
Dir	Displays a list of files and folders contained inside the folder you're working from
Disable	Disables a system service or device driver
Diskpart	Creates or deletes hard drive partitions
Enable	Enables a system service or device driver
Exit	Ends the current Recovery Console session and then restarts the computer
Expand	Extracts a single file or group of files from a compressed file
Fixboot	Writes a new partition boot sector to the system partition that you specify
Fixmbr	Writes a new master boot record to the hard drive you specify
Format	Formats a drive in the file system you specify
Help	Provides more detailed information on any of the other Recovery Console commands
Listsvc	Lists the services and drivers available in your Windows installation
Logon	Used to gain access to the Windows installation you specify
Map	Displays the partition and hard drive that each drive letter is assigned to
Mkdir	Creates a new folder
More	Used to display information inside a text file (same as type command)
Net use	[included in Recovery Console but is not usable]
Rename	Changes the name of the file you specify
Rmdir	Used to delete an existing and completely empty folder
Set	Enables or disables certain options in Recovery Console
Systemroot	Sets the %systemroot% environment variable as the folder you're working from
Type	Used to display information inside a text file (same as more command)

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