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ERD Commander like BartPE is for pre SATA II or SATA III hard drives and SSD's... |
Why you need
ERD Commander for pre
Vista Operating Systems?
Over the years Operating Systems
have evolved from DOS to Windows 10. With that
evolution there has been another evolution, how to fix the problems inherent
with the increasingly complex environment of the computer operating system.
Note: This is NOT BartPE software!
When NT was introduced it came on ninety floppy disks.
Then the bootable cd a couple of years later. The first three
floppies would start the system and you could trouble shoot it from there, when
the bootable CD came out it had an option for trouble shooting your computer.
The 5 Steps to high quality and cheap
DIY Computer Repairs
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With Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and now Windows
10
trouble shooting your problems are no longer so simple. MS has deicide to use
what they call the Emergency Recovery Console. This is a convoluted, confusing,
and down right unusable program. So as with most MS products YOU have to have a solution, a fix, that fix is ERD Commander.
So what is ERD
or Emergency Repair Disc? It is a mini XP operating system on a cd. It has a XP
style desktop and tools to fix problems with a computer that will not start or
you have locked yourself out
I would recommend you have
this fine program in your IT Tool Box. This will allow you
to recover data from a non functional computer, it will allow you to use Ghost
to put the image you made back on in the event of a hardware or software
failure. You can remove hardware or software drivers that were installed and
caused a blue screen when the computer restarted. There are a lot of things you
can do with this product that I have not listed.
A plus is it is a bootable cd, no need for a floppy!
Quote from Microsoft's web site
"When your server or
workstation won't boot, you need ERD Commander 2005. ERD Commander 2005 boots
dead systems directly from CD into a Windows-like repair environment. You'll
have full access to the dead system's volumes, so you can diagnose and repair
problems using tools located on the ERD Commander 2005 Start menu. And you'll
have built-in network access to safely move data off of, or on to, the dead
system. With ERD Commander 2005 you can repair a system quickly and easily,
saving you time and rescuing your critical data.
Key features:
Boots dead systems directly from CD
Easy, familiar Windows-like interface
Intuitive Solution Wizard helps you select the right tool to correct your system
issue
Includes Crash Analyzer Wizard to pinpoint the cause of recent system crashes
for repair
Allows complete disk sanitizing/data removal with Disk Wipe utility
Includes the Locksmith utility to reset lost Administrator passwords
Includes FileRestore so that you can quickly find and recover deleted files
Provides access to XP Restore Points on unbootable Windows XP systems
Detect malware and other applications that may be consuming system resources
Compares key info on unbootable systems with that of a working system for
diagnosis and troubleshooting
Automatically identifies and replaces critical system files that have become
corrupt
Allows for formatting and partitioning of disks
Provides emergency removal capability for faulty hotfixes
Built-in network access to safely copy data to/from dead systems
Repair and diagnostic tools located on Start menu
Repair tools include System Restore tool, System File Repair, Service and Driver
Manager, Hotfix Uninstall Wizard, Locksmith, Registry Editor, Explorer, Disk
Management, and Command Prompt
Data recovery tools include Disk Commander and FileRestore
Diagnostic tools include Crash Analyzer Wizard, System Compare, Autoruns, Event
Log Viewer, System Information, TCP/IP Configuration, and Logical volumes
utilities
Compatible with Windows NT, 2000, XP, and Server 2003."
This article written in late 2006 has it's points, but Microsoft has
discontinued the product. Even though there are in excess of 350+ Million
computers in the world that still use XP.
Pitfalls or other things you will need with ERD Commander:
One thing that comes to mind is the amount of support built into this program.
If you have a system that is a year older than the version of ERD you have there
is a good chance that all the device drivers you will need are on the cd.
If you
have a newer system you may have to get drivers for the video, any raid array
controller, or network card you have in the system. Another draw back to the cd
is that if you want to use a recovery tool such as
Ghost you will have to have it on a separate disk or device like a usb flash
drive or external hard drive.
At the time of writing this article
ERD Commander was widely available but do to
Microsoft's dropping support of this fine program in favor of the 'command
console' kludge starting with Vista it will be extremely hard to find.
See this
ERD Commander
tutorial for more help .
Rating:
Because this program is the only one of its kind
(there are some kludge imitations on the web),
I do not recommend trusting your
data or business to a kludge) and I have used it since it was first introduced
many years ago I will rate it 8 of 10.
The reason for the rating is MS is making
you buy a product that they had to produce instead of incorporating it in the cd
that the OS installation comes on and remove the ER console that is useless.
Update - pre 2011
Windows 7 has a build a Emergency Recovery
Disc (ERD) CD function
that works quite well in conjunction with the
Restore points and system imaging programs. It is recommended that if you have
Windows 7 that you create the ERD. You can use it almost in the same way as
with ERD Commander, the difference is you have to use the Command Prompt Console and MS
convoluted syntax to do your repairs. I have used it twice to restore a Windows
7 installation. Once to repair the boot record and once to install a Ghost Image
of a Windows 7 install.
Update - Aug, 2012
After struggling with Windows 7 on a ASUS laptop with a i Series
processor and a limited BIOS, I came to a conclusion that the PE (Preinstall
Environment) that ERD Commander uses was not compatible with an i
Series processor. I was mistaken, what this program was incompatible with
is the SATA II and III that the BIOS settings use. The older computers had the
SATA specifications which is compatible to the IDE drive format where as the
SATA II and III are compatible with the USB specifications. That means that the
BIOS does not have any IDE support, no IDE support means older SATA drivers will
not work in with these newer computers/BIOS programs.
Update - Oct 2013
I did a search for this fine program/bootable Operating System and only found it
on some highly questionable (pirate) web sites. Even Amazon and eBay don't have
any "used" copies of the software.
The work around is to either not use your older XP Operating Systems and/or ERD
Commander along with BartPE disks unless you add the newer SATA II and III
drivers to the boot disk/device.
See this page for instructions for making an updated boot disk/device that
will work with newer computers that the BIOS does not support IDE or SATA (the
original specification).
P.S.
The last version of this fine program/bootable OS was 2005, I
would advise you not download, buy, or barrow any that have 2006 or higher
version numbers. They are pirate versions and will have viruses embedded in the
software...
Do you get the feeling that Microsoft's Windows 7 ERD
isn't doing the job?
Do you have a Windows 7 ERD? Want to know how to make a custom Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) for yourself? Check this out.
(hint: you can have more tools (programs) than what MS gives you on the
generic Windows 7/8/10 ERD).
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When your
computer
won't
start or is infected with
a virus you
need a
bootable
device to
start the
system to
fix it.
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