The Recovery Console can be used to boot your computer and recover files and fix several computer related problems. There are many commands that can be accessed in Recovery Console, including the ability to start or stop services, some admin tasks, format hard drives, and read and edit NTFS file system files.
You can start Recovery Console by rebooting your computer to the Windows setup install CD. You will need to set your BIOS so that the computer will first boot from the CDROM.
Once started you will need to select the operating system and use your administrator password to logon.
Once logged on you can use the help command to view all the different commands available. Some of these commands are del (delete file), copy (copy file), md (make directory, rd (remove directory), attrib (change the attributes of a file), chkdsk (checks hard disk and provide a report), dir (displays files in a directory), and exit (exits the Recovery Console and restarts your computer)
The command FIXMBR can be used to correct or repair the MBR (master boot record) file. The MBR file is in the first sector of the hard drive and contains partition information needed for the operating system to boot and recognize the different partitions and logical drives available.
The Recovery Console can be very useful for repairing files and recovering or correcting a non functioning operating system or faulty hard drive.
FIXMBR
The FIXMBR website has some additional articles you might find useful.
you can type FIXMBR at the prompt and the MBR (master boot record) is rebuilt and replaced with a new MBR file. This can usually correct some of the startup problems with a corrupted or infected MBR record. Since the MBR record is the first 512 bytes read on the boot hard drive it is also a target for many viruses. If the MBR gets infected the virus can move into memory and control all other boot processes and disable any anti-virus programs. Most anti-virus programs like AVG will detect and stop viruses, but if you boot the computer to an infect device, such as, a floppy or CD, it can infect the MBR. Just rebooting the computer to Recovery Console and using FIXMBR will remove the virus and correct the problem. One WARNING that should be mentioned is that dual boot systems where you have more than one bootable operating system on a hard drive can be affected so that you lose the ability to boot the alternate operating system. You might want to backup the MBR record first just so you can restore it if needed. I also have a FIXMBR YouTube video you might find helpful.